


Some Assembly Required (or, The Raggedy Children)

by faithharkness



Series: Reel Torchwood fics [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, F/M, M/M, Mind Control, Violence, threats of non-con and other terrible things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-17
Packaged: 2017-12-28 03:49:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/987314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithharkness/pseuds/faithharkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A demigod and his army try to conquer the earth.  Said demigod’s brother and a host of Earth’s heroes show him the error of his ways.  Alternatively, a treatise on how family is what you build.</p><p>Written for the current round of Reel Torchwood over on LJ.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>NOW COMPLETE WITH EPILOGUE!</b>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue--Astonishing

**Author's Note:**

> **Author’s Note:** When I saw _The Avengers_ , I walked out muttering that, fuck, now I had to do this for reel_torchwood. Real life kept it from happening last round, but they would _not shut up_ until I finished this time.  
>  **Author’s Note the VERY IMPORTANT:** “Our” Jack is going to be referred to as “Boe” in this; he’s the Thor character. The Real Captain Jack Harkness will be “Captain Jack Harkness” or “Jack”; he’s the Captain America character. Just so nobody’s mental images are wonky in the reading.  
>  **Author’s Note on Language:** I kept the Tesseract and Chitauri the same because 1) they are awesome sci-fi words and 2) Chitauri sets up some awesome (and awesomely bad) jokes for me/Hannah/The Doctor.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** The characters of Torchwood and Doctor Who belong to the BBC, He Who Shall Not Be Named and, I’d argue, Steven Moffatt (at least for Jack). The characters and plotline of _The Avengers_ belongs to Marvel comics and Joss Whedon. No money is made off of this, but my ego will be fed by comments. That doesn’t count as actual profit, does it?

**Some Assembly Required (or, The Raggedy Children)**

**Prologue—Astonishing**  
There were some people in the intelligence committee who had been shocked (if not downright astonished) when Colonel Alex Hopkins was given leave by the Alpha Directive to head up the Tactical Operational Response to Curious Hardware, Weaponry and Objects: Omega Division Initiative (more commonly known as the TORCHWOOD Initiative). Those people were the ones who didn’t know the first thing about either Col. Hopkins or TORCHWOOD. Those in the know had expected nothing less. 

After an exemplary early career in the military, Hopkins had joined a mission with a group of “specialists” who operated outside the government, with the tacit approval of the Crown and other seemingly “for show” entities. On that mission, he had looked into something codenamed Schism, which had cost him his eye. But in this loss, he had gained a purpose. Looking into Schism, he had seen that humanity was woefully unprepared for certain threats that _would_ come down upon Earth. The Alpha Directive, at his urging, had given the go ahead to form TORCHWOOD.

Col. Hopkins had been building and running TORCHWOOD for close to three decades (and not looking a day older, thanks to some of the Schism’s energy, still slumbering in his empty eye socket), and, in the early days of the 21st century, he knew the change he had seen was fast approaching. 

The first thing Col. Hopkins had done once he’d realized this was to snatch Ianto Jones out of the army. Col. Hopkins had been keeping tabs on him since Jones had been a fresh-faced recruit. Before the ink was even dry on the Directive’s hiring approval, Hopkins was stepping out of the shadows in Jones’ flat and offering him a job. After Jones had holstered his sidearm and made some truly excellent coffee, they had hammered out the broad details of Jones’ responsibilities within TORCHWOOD. Those responsibilities had grown over the decade Jones had been with TORCHWOOD (mostly due to Jones’ capabilities as an operative and a handler, but also in large part due to the fact that the man seemed to know _everything_ ), to the point that Hopkins had agreed (if to no one but himself) that Jones was more than his right hand; he was his good eye.

Four years after his own recruitment, Jones had suggested they bring in a specialist for their wetworks. Hopkins was sure Jones had lost his mind when he heard the younger man’s suggestion for that specialist: John Hart. Through his military contacts, Hopkins knew of Hart’s skill as a sniper, but the man’s idiosyncrasies (temper, snark and his affinity for a bow) were also legendary. Add to that the fact that Hart had gone AWOL and was rumored to be hiring himself out as a scarily-efficient assassin, and Hopkins was sure Jones had lost his mind. After a shouting match conducted in low tones and liberal profanities that had become legendary (if in no way accurately reported), Hopkins had told Jones he could have six months; if he couldn’t find Hart and turn him into a proper specialist in that amount of time, Hart would be turned over to the proper authorities, minus a chunk of his memory. It had taken Jones a week to track down Hart, put a bullet in his leg and calmly offer him a chance at TORCHWOOD. Six weeks later (and, to be fair, one of those weeks was devoted to physical therapy for the leg wound; TORCHWOOD medical was ridiculously stringent about making sure their patients were up to the rigors of training before discharging them), Hart was a proper specialist and Hopkins hadn’t questioned Jones’ judgment again.

It was Jones’ success with Hart that had led to Hopkins not throwing his arse in the brig when Jones informed him that not only had Hart not taken out the Black Knight (who was, surprisingly, a woman), he had actually brought the assassin/spy back with him. Jones was willing to accept Hart’s assessment that the Knight wanted (and deserved) a chance at redemption, and had requested the same arrangement to train Hannah Summers-Fogg as he’d had for Hart. Hopkins had grudgingly given it to him. Fogg did it in half the time Hart had, a fact she rubbed in the sniper’s face on a regular basis. Under Jones’ hand, the duo was the best wetworks specialists TORCHWOOD had.

Only two years ago, and on Jones’ recommendation, Hopkins had promoted Gwen Cooper from within the ranks of the Division and given her a place on his team. She had moved quickly up through TORCHWOOD’s infrastructure, due to her unique combination of ruthlessness and bleeding heart. At first, Hopkins had thought it was Jones’ first, and only, bad call, but he had eventually agreed that she made a good agent. Hopkins especially liked the fact that she was less likely to debate his orders than Jones was. While he never questioned Jones’ loyalty, he did like the respite Cooper often presented.

When John Smith, known more commonly in R&D circles as “the Doctor” and his TARDIS armor had appeared on Hopkins’ radar, he knew the Doctor would be an integral part of the elite team he was planning to build to defend the planet. He had sent Fogg undercover to Gallifrey Industries to keep an eye on the Doctor after he’d unmasked himself to the world. Hopkins wanted to make sure the Doctor was behaving himself—and would give TORCHWOOD first crack at any new tech he developed. 

He’d wanted Jones on the case, as he was known to the Doctor from the whole unmasking fiasco, and had a calming presence. But he’d had to send Jones to the wilds of the Brecon Beacons to handle whatever had spat itself out of that wormhole. He had sent Hart along with Jones; he wanted Jones to have long-range cover and Hart never missed. Jones had come back from the mission with some shiny new tech, an inventoried bill for rebuilding a small town and information about an alien race that had at least five of its members firmly on Team Earth. Their leader, Boe, had promised Jones he would return if Earth needed him. Hart had returned from the mission with a new codename (which he’d been whingeing for for months; he felt “The Archer” lacked sex appeal) given to him by Boe: Hawkeye. Fogg had then demanded a new codename of her own and Jones had dubbed her the White Queen, for reasons Hopkins couldn’t fathom; he had almost given in to the urge to ask, but then remembered that Jones and Fogg were infamous for their ability to have entire conversations using only their left eyebrows and decided he wanted to be nowhere near the center of that madness.

Jones had no sooner landed back at TORCHWOOD’s base, the super helicarrier christened the _Valiant_ , than Hopkins had ordered him back out into the Atlantic; one of their research teams had struck gold beneath the ice. Captain Jack Harkness, a Yank pilot who had flown with the RAF during World War II (and been the subject of experiments in creating super soldiers conducted by the Doctor’s father), had crash-landed in the 40s while saving the planet. And while Hopkins had gotten his hands on the alien tech lost during that last fight, the whereabouts of Captain Harkness had been unknown for 70 years. They had thawed the captain out and, under Jones’ watchful gaze—the man had a serious case of hero worship going on—the captain had begun acclimating to the 21st century. He had been the easiest to sell on the idea of an elite team protecting Earth.

The last piece of his puzzle would be the hardest to convince to bring in without a property-damage catastrophe, but Hopkins knew where Dr. Owen Harper currently was, so he could be retrieved at any time. Provided Hopkins sent in the right operative; one who wouldn’t bring out Dr. Harper’s gamma-radiation-created alter-ego, the Weevil.

And while Hopkins’ second in command, his “good eye”, liked to refer to this team as “the raggedy children” behind closed doors, Hopkins had bigger plans for them. If Hopkins had his way, TORCHWOOD would defend the Earth against all comers. And if they couldn’t, well, there was a back-up plan having to do with avenging the dead, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.


	2. Part I--Echo

**Part I—Echo**  
In the very grand scheme of things, Earth is physically a small planet around a minor star in an insignificant arm of a spinning galaxy. And while this fact has rankled countless of Earth’s inhabitants through the millennia, they still accept it in some small part of their brains.

However, in a different light on the grand scheme of things, Earth is spectacularly important. There is something about the tiny, spinning ball of blue that brings out both the conquering and protective instincts of various races. Through the millennia, Earth has been noticed or ignored depending upon the race looking at it. From the notices came legends of gods and monsters that outlasted civilizations and apocalypses. 

Now, it was being noticed because it housed something that did not belong to it. Something which had been lost to its owners (and their conquerors) for millennia. Something which had been found and was now being held in the fragile hands of this puny, human world’s denizens.

The Kovarian knelt before her master on a desolate moon. They waited here for their chance to ravage Earth and all its denizens.

“My Lord,” she said.

A twitch of the figure above and before her was the only signal it had heard.

“The gateway is nearly ready. We shall send Gray through and he shall seize the Tesseract from its captors. He will open a hole in the fabric of space and time and our forces, our Chitauri, shall take this planet.”

The figure lifted a hand and flicked it, acknowledging her information and dismissing her in one movement.

The Kovarian stood and turned. She passed the ranks of the Chitauri, chittering to each other in the way of hive-minded creatures. Only their hive leaders were absolutely silent. Silent, and able to blend in by being shiveringly unable to remember once they were out of your sight. She walked quickly to the room their newest ally was waiting.

“It is time,” she said as she entered the room.

Gray of the Shane looked up at her. He had been sitting on the ground, his staff resting across his folded legs as he meditated.

“Are you ready to fulfill your end of the bargain?” she asked.

He grinned at her, his scarred face giving the expression a layer of menace.

“And so it begins,” he said.  
****

Ianto Jones waited patiently on the helipad, the wind from the landing helicopter whipping the clothing of the guards, but not Ianto or his suit. He kept his gaze, shielded by sunglasses despite the late hour, steadily on the open door of the helicopter, waiting for his boss to alight. 

Gwen Cooper came out first, her landing making a soft sound even over the noise of the rotors. Ianto sighed inwardly; the woman would never be capable of covert missions. Hopkins followed her, his landing soundless.

“What have we got, Jones?” Hopkins asked as he headed inside the research facility. 

Ianto automatically fell into step on Hopkins’ left side and didn’t wait to be sure Gwen was following them.

“That’s the problem, sir, we don’t know,” Ianto replied. “Dr. Sato read an energy surge on the Tesseract four hours ago.”

“Dr. Sato is not authorized for live testing.”

“She wasn’t testing, sir. The surge was a spontaneous event.”

“It just turned itself on without warning?” Gwen asked.

_That’s what spontaneous means_, Ianto thought, but held his silence. “Dr. Sato says that if it keeps doing this, we may not be able to control it.”

“How long until the facility is cleared?” Hopkins asked.

“All personnel and essential equipment will be evacuated within the hour.”

“Do better.”

“Sir,” Ianto said, peeling off from them to go work his formidable organizational skills on the evacuation.

“Sir, if we don’t get the Tesseract under control, there may be no such thing as ‘minimum safe distance’,” Gwen said as they descended the stairs down into the main labs.

“So, you think we should tell everyone to go home? Or perhaps tuck themselves under their desks and cover their heads with their arms?”

“Of course not, but—”

Hopkins managed to fix her with a harsh stare as he sure-footedly marched backwards down the stairs. “Then until there is irrefutable proof to the contrary, we will continue to act as though the world is going to continue turning. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Be sure all the Phase 2 equipment is on the next truck out.”

“Yes, sir,” she repeated, peeling off at a landing to go fulfill his orders.

Hopkins swept into the main lab, situated in the very bowels of the complex.

“Talk to me, Dr. Sato,” he snapped as he approached the diminutive scientist.

Toshiko Sato, whom he had (via Ianto’s intel) snatched from the claws of a UNIT cell after the Brecon Beacons debacle (and Ianto still hadn’t forgiven him for letting UNIT get their hands on Sato for even an hour), turned to face him, unfazed by his demeanor. She had gone toe-to-toe with a god, after all. Hopkins had liberated the taser she had used on Boe from UNIT and kept it in a clear box on his desk. R&D desperately wanted their hands on it to see Dr. Sato’s alterations to the device, but he kept them at bay. If R&D had the specs in their system, it would only be a matter of time before the Doctor would have them, and that was one headache he didn’t need: the Doctor with his hands on a taser that could take down a god.

“The Tesseract is misbehaving,” she said, pulling him out of his reverie.

“Is that supposed to be a joke?”

“No joke. As soon as we shut her off, she goes around us and turns herself back on.”

“How?”

Tosh gave a small shrug, her eyes alight with the thrill of science. “She’s a source of pure energy, Director. And she’s ready to wake up.”

Hopkins watched the Tesseract glow in its harness, slashes of blue light flinging into the air and then disappearing in a heartbeat. “Is it safe to be this close?” he asked.

“Perfectly. She’s throwing off some low levels of gamma radiation; nothing to worry about.”

Hopkins turned to look at her, his eye narrowed. “Gamma radiation can be dangerous.”

Tosh waved him off. “I’ve read the Harper files front to back, Director. We are nowhere near that kind of exposure.”

Hopkins sighed. “Where’s Hart?”

Tosh laughed. “The hawk? He’s in his nest, of course.”

Hopkins looked up into the scaffolding, spotting his sniper. He pressed his finger to his comm. “Hart, report.”

He watched as John Hart hopped up, kicked a coiled rope over the edge of his perch, then slid down it easily. Always with an entrance, that one.

“Report, Hart,” Hopkins said as the other man joined him.

“Sato is clean. Doesn’t do anything but run equations and coo at the results. And she has even less patience for flirting over the comms than you do,” Hart replied.

The two men walked closer to the Tesseract.

“And the rest?”

“Clean. No IMs, no sketchy e-mails. No visits to non-work related websites. Not a single LOLcat. If there’s any tampering with this thing, it’s not happening at this end.”

“At this end?” Hopkins asked, looking at Hart.

Hart barely kept himself from rolling his eyes. Sure, he’d had an… _unorthodox_ upbringing, but he wasn’t a moron. Did no one get the whole ‘sees better from a distance’ thing? 

“Yeah,” Hart said. “This thing is a door to the other side of the universe, right?”

Hopkins nodded.

“Doors open from both sides.”

Hopkins had just opened his mouth to answer when the Tesseract seemed to pull in on itself before sending a shockwave outwards. Hart barely took the time to glance at the opened doorway before tackling the director to the ground and covering him with his body. He looked around, cursing silently as he realized Tosh had been the only one with the brains to duck for cover. The rest were staring open-mouthed at whatever was behind him. He carefully turned his head to see what had come through.

The figure of a man was crouched in front of where the rift had opened, and Hart found himself hoping that when the mist cleared, the man would be naked, a la _The Terminator_. As the guards rushed forward, the man stood and Hart realized that not only was the man fully clothed, he was armed and had a seriously mad look on his face.

“Fuck,” Hart breathed as he and Hopkins stood up.

“Sir, please put down the spear,” Hopkins said to the man.

It took all Hart’s training (read: Jones’ beating into him what was appropriate protocol) to not turn to his superior and say, “Seriously?” The restraint saved his life, as the man with the spear fired energy reminiscent of the Tesseract’s straight at them. For the second time that day, he tackled the director to the ground.

The guards fired and were quickly taken out by the energy from man’s spear and his throwing knives. Hart gained his feet and reached for his gun as the man grabbed him.

“You have heart,” the man said.

Before Hart could make an obvious joke, the man pressed the spear to his chest. He felt a wave of cold wash through and invade his body, and then he felt trapped inside his own head, his body waiting for orders from the man.

Hopkins took advantage of the man’s distraction while corrupting TORCHWOOD’s agents to pull the Tesseract out of its harness, hissing as it burned his gloved fingers. He quickly put it into a secure carrying case, intent on getting it the hell out of the base.

“Please don’t,” the man said, his back still to Hopkins. He turned, a pleasantly feral grin on his scarred face. “I still need that.”

“This doesn’t have to get any messier,” Hopkins said without turning around.

“Of course it does. I’ve come too far for anything less.”

Hopkins turned to face him.

The man spread his arms wide. “I am Gray, of the Shane. And I am burdened with glorious purpose.”

“Gray?” Tosh said, rising from where she had been trying to help her colleagues. “Brother of Boe?”

Gray hissed and glared at her.

“We have no quarrel with your people,” Hopkins said.

“An ant has no quarrel with a boot,” Gray replied, smiling.

“Are you planning to step on us?”

Gray laughed. “I come with glad tidings of a world made free.”

“Free from what?”

Gray eyed Hopkins from head to toe. “Free from freedom. Free from organizations like yours stealing in and out in the night to control people’s choices. All in the name of _freedom_ ,” he spat. “Once you accept that freedom is a lie, you will know peace,” he said, before turning and touching the spear to Tosh’s heart. The scientist had been trying to sneak up on him, but she was caught in the same trance as Hart once the spear touched her.

“See, I don’t think peace means what you think it means,” Hopkins said.

“Sir,” Hart called out to Gray. “He’s trying to stall you. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of Welsh countryside on us. He means to bury us,” Hart said as he joined his new commander.

“Like the pharaohs of old. It’s too bad, Hart. The Queen will miss you.”

Hart twitched at the mention of his long-time partner. Hopkins smiled, realizing Hart was still in there somewhere.

“He’s right,” Tosh interrupted, her gaze on a terminal. “The portal is collapsing upon itself. We have maybe five minutes before it goes critical.”

“Agent Hart,” Gray said softly.

Hart pulled his sidearm and shot Hopkins twice in the chest. Hart, Tosh and Gray moved past the director’s prone form, Hart snagging the case with the Tesseract as he passed. He quickly handed it off to Tosh, knowing he’d need his hands free for combat if they meant to get out of the facility. _We’ll have to get past Cooper…and Ianto_ , he thought. He fought down the need to speak those names to Gray. He found he had some control; while he couldn’t stop his body from following orders, he could keep it from following through with his usual precision. He led the way to the garage.

“We need these vehicles,” Hart said to Gwen as they entered the garage. Tosh climbed into the passenger side of a truck as Gray leapt into the bed, crouching down.

“Who’s that?” Gwen asked.

“Didn’t tell me,” Hart replied as he made his way to the truck.

Hart’s hand was on the door when Gwen’s radio crackled to life.

“Cooper! Do you copy? Hart’s been—”

Gwen missed the rest of Hopkins’ message as she dove for cover. Hart fired three rounds at her before jumping into the truck and starting it. Gwen fired after them before jumping into a jeep. “Are you all right, sir?” she asked into her radio.

“Took two in the vest. Hart’s got the Tesseract. Don’t let them get out of the base with it. I’m calling an evac; this whole place is about to come down,” Hopkins replied.

Gwen swore violently as she threw the jeep into gear and pursued Hart. She sped around other evacuating vehicles, dodging shots from Gray’s spear and the wrecked cars that weren’t as lucky. She managed to get ahead of the truck, then threw the emergency brake and spun around so she was facing it, firing through her windshield. Hart returned fire without hitting her or her tires. Hart finally forced her out of the way and sped up the exit ramp. She followed closely and shouted in fear as the complex collapsed almost on top of her. She grabbed her radio as she skidded to a halt, the rear of her vehicle under debris.

“They got out. Does anyone copy? I’m going to have to dig out,” she said, as she began to kick her way out of the mangled jeep.

Hopkins hurried out onto the landing pad. “We’ll follow,” he replied to Gwen, spotting Ianto leaning halfway out of the chopper to give him a hand in.

“He’s got Hart,” Hopkins shouted as the chopper took off.

Ianto nodded and shouted, “Follow the vehicle out of the south entrance!” to the pilot.

The helicopter quickly honed in on the truck, moving the opposite direction of all the other escaping vehicles. The pilot flew ahead, flanking the chopper. Hopkins and Ianto leaned out the side, firing at the truck with their sidearms.

“Fuck,” Ianto said as he watched Gray take aim at the chopper with his spear. He grabbed Hopkins’ arm and pulled him out of the chopper seconds before the blast hit. They both landed hard, then came up firing at the truck as it sped away.

“Director! Director Hopkins, do you copy?” Gwen shouted through the radio.

“The Tesseract is with a hostile force,” Hopkins replied. “I have men down. You?”

“A lot of men still under; I don’t know how many survivors,” she replied.

“Sound the general call. I want everyone not pulling survivors from the wreckage looking for the Tesseract.”

“Copy,” Gwen said.

“Jones and I are getting back to base. This is a Level 7 event. As of right now, we are at war.”

Ianto sucked in a breath. “What do we do?”

Hopkins gave him a grim smile. “Praying wouldn’t be out of the question. But first, we have calls to make.”


	3. Part II--Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

**Part II—Never Kill a Boy on the First Date**  
Russia was a beautiful country. As long as you were looking at the architecture and the wide vistas of the Asian terrain. If you were currently tied (sloppily) to a chair (rickety, but serviceable) while a (self-purported) crime boss calling himself “The General” interrogated you while two of his lackeys looked on, it was less so. Still, Hannah Summers-Fogg, the White Queen, had a job to do. And apparently, sitting sloppily tied to said rickety chair in a tiny white dress looking for all the world as though you were scared by more than the crime boss’ woeful grooming habits made it easy for you to gather all the intel you needed. All while seemingly caught in a trap of your own making.

Hannah let out a muffled groan as The General punched her, whipping her head to the side.

“This is not how I wanted this evening to go,” he said in Russian.

Hannah lifted an eyebrow. “I know exactly how you wanted this to go,” she replied in kind. “Believe me, this is much more entertaining.”

“Who are you working for?” he asked as one of his goons, whom Hannah had named Mutt in her head, grabbed her chair and tilted it back, her stiletto-clad feet coming off the ground as the chair leaned back over a gaping hole in the ground.

“No one,” she replied.

“General Romanov, perhaps? Does he think we have to go through him to move our cargo?”

Hannah tried to look scared, her eyes on the hand holding her chair above the abyss.

“I thought Solohob was in charge of the export business,” she said, then feigned a sigh of relief as all four legs of her chair were returned to the floor.

“Solohob?” The General laughed. “He is a front. He pretends he is in charge, but he is nothing. Your outdated information betrays you.” He leaned forward, his face inches from hers, and _tsked_. “The infamous White Queen turns out to be nothing more than just another pretty face.”

“You think I’m pretty?” she asked, her smile deadly.

The General turned away from her as Mutt held her mouth open.

“Tell Romanov I do not need him to move the tanks. Tell him he is out.” He laughed as he picked up a pair of pliers. “Well,” he said, switching to English, “perhaps you will have to write it down, no?”

Hannah gave a calculated weak struggle, getting ready for her big move. Her plans were interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone. Mutt looked at his cohort, whom she had name Jeff, who looked at The General. Jeff pulled his ringing phone out of his pocket and answered.

“ _Da_.” He held out the phone to The General. “It’s for her.”

“What?” The General he said, taking the phone. “Listen carefully, whoever you are, I—”

“You are at 114 Solenksi Plaza, third floor,” the man on the other end of the line said. “My name is Ianto Jones and I have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone now or I will turn that block into another Tunguska before you gain the lower level.”

The General’s eyes widened as he settled the phone between Hannah’s ear and shoulder. “It’s for you,” he said.

“We need you to come in,” Ianto said.

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Are you _kidding_ me? I’m working.”

“This overrides your mission.”

“I am in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me _everything._ ”

The General scoffed. “Giving? I’m not giving! You are—”

Hannah gave him her patented ‘bitch, please’ eyebrow before turning her attention back to her call. “Ianto—”

“Han,” he said, using the pet name he never used over comms. “Hart’s been compromised.”

Hannah’s brain rushed through a myriad of thoughts in a split-second. She looked up at The General, her expression hard. “Let me put you on hold.” She nodded at The General, who took the phone back. She took a moment to grin before headbutting him and unleashing the kind of beat down that made ‘White Queen’ a name that was whispered among denizens of the underworld with the reverence usually given only to the Devil himself.

Onboard _Valiant_ , Ianto patiently listened to the sounds of Hannah kicking ass as he scrolled through the intel briefing just handed to him by Rhys Williams, one of their bridge techs.

“Where are you picking me up?” Hannah said when she came back on the line. “And my full kit had _better_ be on the ride. I have vengeance to wreak.”

Years ago, during her initial training with TORCHWOOD, Hannah had answered Ianto’s questions about appropriate responses to operations with what Ianto referred to as ‘disturbingly violent intensity’ to situations that perhaps called for a more subtle hand. He had therefore worked with her to develop a depth chart which would tell her when, and under what circumstances, certain responses were acceptable. Hannah had done very well with keeping to the chart over the years. She gave a feral grin as she replayed the actions she was allowed to take (and yes, there was an order and gradations) when her partner was put in danger.

“Two clicks due east and they are waiting for you with your full kit plus some special presents from me,” Ianto replied.

“Where’s John now?” she asked, running for her pick-up.

“We don’t know.”

“But he’s alive,” she said, her tone making it clear that it was not a question.

“We think so. I’ll give you a full briefing when you get here. But first, we need you to bring in the Big Guy.”

She snorted. “Ianto, you know the Doctor doesn’t trust me any further than he can throw me.”

Ianto laughed. “Oh, no. _I’ve_ got the Doctor. You get the Big Guy.”

Hannah stopped dead in her tracks. “Fuck me.”

“See you on the _Valiant_ ,” Ianto replied, then ended the call.  
****

Owen Harper had been on the run for a very long time. Sure, there had been times when he was running _toward_ something (answers, a possible cure), but he had been running, seemingly non-stop, since that tragic accident in the science lab at Cardiff University. One bad day with gamma radiation and he had become the target of General Mark Frost, who was determined to hunt Owen to the ends of the earth to get him strapped down and experimented upon in the name of the next generation of super soldiers. So Owen had been running. A few years ago, he had ‘helped’ demolish poor Splot, then run to the wilds of Iceland before moving to the Continent. He had chosen India because he liked the food, he could help people, and there were almost literally a bajillion people to hide among.

He was making a house call now. A simple viral illness caused by less-than-ideal living conditions. He could mostly offer palliatives while the virus ran its course, but he had made a name for himself among the poor and the hidden. He was treating the father of a small family when he heard footsteps on the stairs behind him. He turned to see a small girl thrusting a handful of money between the rails on the banister.

“My papa,” she said, even as the woman of the house tried to hurry her away.

“Is he like this?” Owen asked, pointing to the man he had been helping.

The little girl nodded. “Please,” she said, her lower lip wobbling.

Owen, never one to resist a boo-boo lip, followed her.

The small girl led him to a hut on the outskirts of the city. They paused only once in their trek, Owen halting the small girl and turning them away from the military patrol that drove by. He followed her into the hut and vaguely admired how fast she was as she darted through the house. The admiration turned to disdain as he watched her disappear out a window.

“Always get the money up front, Harper,” he muttered.

“You know, for someone trying to avoid stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle.”

Owen turned to face the speaker and found himself confronted with a stunning blonde woman dressed in a white blouse and skirt, an icy blue shawl thrown carelessly over her arms.

“Avoiding stress isn’t the secret,” he replied.

She lifted an eyebrow. “Then what is? The collected works of Don DeLillo?”

He gave a mirthless laugh. “You brought me to the edge of the city. Very smart. I’m assuming the whole place is surrounded by men with big tranquilizer guns?” he said, looking out the window.

She tilted her head to the side.

“Just me.”

“And your actress buddy,” he said, pointing to the window. “Is she a spy, too? Do they start that young?”

“I did.”

“And who are you?”

“Hannah Summers-Fogg.”

“Are you here to kill me, Ms. Summers-Fogg? Because I can tell you right now: that’s going to end badly. For everyone.”

“No, of course not. I’m here on behalf of TORCHWOOD.”

He snorted. “TORCHWOOD. How did they find me?”

She smiled. “We never lost you, Dr. Harper. We kept our distance. We’ve even kept others off your trail. You had a near miss in Reykjavik. Would have been costly had it not been for us.”

“Why?”

She shook her head once. “Alex Hopkins seems to trust you, and that’s enough for TORCHWOOD.”

Owen laughed.

“But now we need you to come in out of the cold. Well, the muggy, at any rate,” she said.

“What if I say no?”

She gave him a brilliant, seductive smile. “I’ll persuade you.”

“And what if the Other Guy says no?”

“You’ve gone more than a year since the incident in Splot. I don’t think you want to break that streak,” she said, sitting down at the table, seemingly completely unfazed by talk of his monstrous alter ego.

He snorted again. “I don’t always get what I want.”

She pulled out her phone. “Doctor, we’re facing a potential global catastrophe. An extinction level event.”

“Ah. Well, you see, _those_ I actively try to avoid.”

“This,” she said, sliding her phone across the table to rest in front of the empty chair, “is the Tesseract. It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet.”

Owen walked over and picked up the phone, looking at the data scrolling across the file. “What does Hopkins want me to do, swallow it?” he asked.

She shook her head. “He just wants you to find it. It’s been stolen from our secure site. It emits a gamma signature that is too weak for TORCHWOOD to trace. There is _no one_ who knows gamma radiation like you do.” She leaned back in her chair, nonchalant. “If there was, I would be there instead of here.”

Owen took off his glasses and tucked them into a pocket. “So Hopkins isn’t interested in the monster,” he said, biting off the word.

“Not that he has told me.”

“And he tells you everything?”

Owen gave her credit for not coming out with a complete lie in her response. “Talk to Hopkins,” she said. “He needs you on this.”

“He needs me in a cage?” Owen asked, testing her.

“No one is going to put you in a cage,” she assured him.

“Stop lying to me!” he shouted.

Hannah stood up quickly, a gun suddenly in her hands and pointed at his head.

Owen smiled and backed up. “I’m sorry. That was mean. I just wanted to see what you would do.” He held his hands up in a placating manner. “Why don’t we do this the easy way where you don’t use that cannon and the other guy doesn’t make a mess. Sound like a plan, Hannah?” he said, his voice soft.

Hannah slowly lowered the gun and touched her ear with one hand. “Stand down. We’re good here,” she said softly.

“Just you and me,” Owen said, even as he heard the sound of footsteps backing away from the hut. “Just you and me,” he repeated.

Hannah nodded slowly.

“So what’s the plan?”  
****

Hopkins stood in the Star Chamber of the _Valiant_. Yes, its legitimate name was the Alpha Directive Briefing Room, but considering the egos and the decisions made there, he and Ianto tended to call it the Star Chamber.

“This is out of line, Director. You are dealing with forces you can’t control,” the shadow-clad head of the Directive said. They were all clad in shadow, which led to Hopkins giving them nicknames in his head to keep them straight. He had dubbed the head ‘Bugs’.

“Have you ever been in war, sir?” Hopkins asked Bugs. “In a firefight? Did you feel an overabundance of control at the time?”

Bugs snorted. “Are you saying this _Shane_ is declaring war on our planet?”

“Not the Shane,” Hopkins corrected. “Gray.”

“He can’t be working alone,” said the female representative he had dubbed Daffy. “What about his brother, this Boe?”

Hopkins shook his head. “Our intel says Boe is not a hostile. That being said, he’s worlds away and cannot be counted on for aide. It’s up to us.”

“Which is why you should be focusing on Phase 2,” Bugs said. “It was designed for exactly this kind of situation.”

“Phase 2 is not ready. Our enemy is. We need a response team.”

“The Excalibur Initiative was shut down after the Splot debacle and the Doctor’s inability to keep a low profile.”

“This isn’t about Excalibur,” Hopkins protested.

“What’s the use of running the world’s greatest covert security network if you are going to leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks?”

“I am not leaving any _thing_ to any _one. We need a response team._ These people may be isolated at best and unbalanced if we’re being honest. But if we can find the right _push_ , the right thing to bring them together, I believe they can be _exactly_ what we need.”

Daffy scoffed. “ _You_ believe.”

“War is upon us, Director,” Bugs said. “And it is not won by _sentiment_.”

“No,” Hopkins said sadly. “It’s won by soldiers.”  
****

Captain Jack Harkness had led what many would consider an extraordinary life. He had always wanted to do what was _right_ , just because it was right, and not because of any fame or glory it might bring to him. The problem was, Jack Harkness had been a scrawny, sickly child growing up in east Texas. There had been bullies aplenty; and the ones who hadn’t sought Jack out had found him anyway, as he defended those weaker than him. When war had broken out in Europe, all he had wanted to do was help those he were being beaten by those bigger than them. The United States hadn’t entered the war yet, but Jack knew that they should. And just because the nation wouldn’t didn’t mean that he _shouldn’t_. Thanks to his British mother, he had dual citizenship. So one night, he had packed his bag, climbed out his window and made his way to New York. From there, he stowed away on a freighter and landed in England. 

He tried joining the military several times; turned down six times because of his frailty. But finally, he had caught the eye of Dr. Charles Brandon, who had seen something in Jack that the thought could make England proud. Jack had suffered through boot camp and the taunts of ‘Yankee’. He had been selected for the Captain Britain program. Through Dr. Brandon’s serum and the mechanical wherewithal of the scientist known only as “the Doctor”, Jack had been transformed from his sickly self into the model soldier. Under the circumstances, Brandon had renamed him “Captain America” and Jack had never been sure if it was to honor him or to piss off the Doctor. As it was, he usually went by the simple moniker of “Captain Jack”. He had volunteered for the RAF and flown numerous successful missions before he had finally been declared KIA. He had hijacked a German bomber loaded with weapons of unknown destruction modeled on something called the Tesseract and crashed it into the frozen wastelands of the North Atlantic.

For seventy years, he had been in suspended animation beneath the sea. He’d eventually been discovered and revived and was now living a quiet life in London, utilizing the facilities of TORCHWOOD and waiting for something that would make his resurrection make sense. Something that would make his survival _meaningful._

Jack wailed away on the heavy bag in the gym, trying to defeat the demons that kept him awake at night. With a final blow that landed with the names of his lost comrades on his lips, he demolished the heavy bag. He sighed and detached it from the hook, dropping it on a pile of its similarly destroyed companions. He walked over and retrieved another, hanging it on the hook.

“Trouble sleeping?”

Jack turned his head to see Director Hopkins standing in the doorway. He barely paused before resuming his routine. “I slept for 70 years, sir. I’m good.”

“Then you should be out celebrating and seeing the world.”

Jack laughed harshly and began to unwrap his hands. “When I went into the drink, the world was at war. When I woke up, they told me the war was over and that we’d won. They didn’t mention all we’d lost.”

Hopkins nodded, sitting on a bench. “We’ve made some mistakes along the way. Some of them, very recently.”

“Are you here with a mission, sir?”

“I am.”

He dropped his soiled hand wraps on the bench. “Are you trying to get me out into the world again? Because that worked _so well_ last time,” he said sharply. He admitted it was slightly unfair on his part; the director had had no way of knowing he was gay. Jack was sure Hopkins had meant no harm by assigning him the doe-eyed girl to ‘introduce’ him to the new world. It had been embarrassing for all parties concerned, and he’d rather not repeat it, thank you very much.

“I’m trying to save the world,” Hopkins said, holding out a file.

Jack took it and flipped it open, a photograph of a familiar glowing blue cube at the top. “Hydra’s secret weapon,” he said.

“The Doctor fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought—we think—that the Tesseract is the key to unlimited, sustainable energy. It’s a valuable commodity in this day and age. It’s something the world sorely needs.”

Jack handed the file back. “Who took it from you?”

Hopkins smiled; trust Captain Jack to get to the heart of it. “His name is Gray and he’s…not from these parts. There is a lot we’ll have to bring you up to speed on if you want in. The world has gotten stranger than you already know.”

Jack laughed. “At this point, I don’t think anything would surprise me.”

“Ten quid says you’re wrong. There’s a debrief packet for you at your flat. Is there anything you know about the Tesseract that we should know?”

“Yeah,” Jack said, as he stood to leave. “You should have left it at the bottom of the damn ocean.”  
*****

The Doctor had been called many things in his lifetime. Many of them were true, many of them were unrepeatable in polite company, and many of them were both. And that was before he had designed the TARDIS armor and set himself up as a superhero. He pondered all of this—and so much more because he was, in fact, a genius the likes of which the world hadn’t seen since, well, his father—as he finished soldering the final component into place beneath the Thames. This equipment would make his tower, Gallifrey, the only structure in the UK that ran on totally clean energy, thanks to the arc reactor he had designed. Energy he had designed and made work, in no small part due to the technology he had unlocked when he had made the TARDIS armor.

“All right, that’s the last of it,” he said as he finished up. Unable to resist, he set the TARDIS’ thrusters on full and blasted up out of the Thames.

“Show off,” River Song replied, her face appearing in his heads-up display.

“And you married me. Which says more about you than it does about me,” he replied.

She laughed. “The readings all look good from here, sweetie. We’re going to have to go public on this. I want your face and this tech on the cover of every magazine. I don’t want people to be able to turn on the telly without hearing your name. I want—”

“River, River. This is a _moment_. One of the few fixed points of wonder. Gallifrey Tower is alive and completely running on clean energy. Enjoy the moment.”

“Then get back here and I _will_.”

The Doctor grinned as he decided to put off showing off as he flew over London and poured on the speed to his tower.

“Doctor,” IDRIS, his AI, said.

“What is it, IDRIS?”

“Agent Ianto Jones is on the phone for you. He seems quite insistent,” she said.

The Doctor groaned as he touched down on his landing pad and his machines began stripping the armor off him. “I’m not in.” He chuckled, looking around at the night sky. “I’m actually out.”

“But, Doctor, he’s—”

“Never bother me when I’m on my way for naughty times with River, IDRIS.”

IDRIS sighed. “Yes, Doctor.”

The Doctor strolled into the common room, spotting River standing in front of several displays showing readings from the reactor.

“So, how does it feel to be a genius?” he asked, stepping up behind her and putting his arms around her waist.

She turned in his arms and gave him a kiss. “Same as it felt yesterday.”

“Saucy minx.”

“I think I preferred ‘hell in high heels’.”

“Really? It felt like a saucy minx moment.”

“Mm-hm.”

“I’m going to be paying for that comment to the Prime Minister in subtle ways for a long time, aren’t I?” he asked as he poured champagne for them.

“Not going to be that subtle, Sweetie.”

“I live for your unsubtlety.”

“That’s not a word, darling,” she said, tapping her glass to his before taking a drink.

The Doctor groaned as his phone rang. He pulled it out and saw Agent Jones’ face on the screen. “You have reached the Life Model Decoy of the Doctor. Please leave a message.”

“This is urgent,” Jones said.

“Then leave it urgently.”

The elevator doors opened and Agent Jones stepped out, closing his phone.

“Security breach. IDRIS, what is going on?” the Doctor said, looking around.

“I’m sorry, Doctor. He seems to have overridden my code.”

“ _Not_ sexy, IDRIS. Also, unbelievable.” He turned to look at River. “You gave him codes, didn’t you?”

“Ianto, how are you?” River said, going over to the other man.

“‘Ianto’? His first name is ‘Agent’,” the Doctor protested.

“Don’t mind him,” River said to Ianto, waving the Doctor off.

The Doctor scoffed as he joined them. “I’m sorry, Agent Jones, but consulting hours for TORCHWOOD are every third Thursday between three and three-thirty.” He turned to River. “That was lovely alliteration, wasn’t it?”

“Indeed.”

Ianto held out a tablet computer to the Doctor. “I need you to look this over.” 

The Doctor bit back a sigh when he saw it was TORCHWOOD tech and not his own.

“Agent, you know I don’t like to be handed things,” he said.

“Oh, but I love when handsome men hand me things. So let’s do this,” she said, trading her glass of champagne for the tablet and then exchanging that for the Doctor’s glass.

The Doctor glared, but opened the tablet as he walked over to his terminals so IDRIS could hack and open it into a format he found favorable.

“Is this about the Excalibur Initiative?” River asked.

Ianto lifted an eyebrow at her.

She widened her eyes in mock innocence. “Which I, of course, know nothing about.”

“The Excalibur Initiative was canned after Splot,” the Doctor called back to her.

“I did not know that.”

“Besides,” the Doctor said, turning around and folding his arms over his chest. “I was un-invited into the Initiative.”

“I didn’t know that, either.”

The Doctor glared at her, knowing full well that IDRIS had tattled to her.

“Apparently, I’m volatile, tangentially-challenged and don’t play well with others.”

“Ah, those I did know,” she said, taking a sip of her champagne.

“River, if you’d please,” he said, waving her over.

“Just a moment, Ianto, enjoy the champagne,” she said before sauntering over to her husband.

The Doctor turned his back on Jones as he began looking at the data IDRIS had pulled off the tablet. “Why is he ‘Ianto’?”

She sighed. “Sweetie, you of all people should know what men in suits do to me.”

He scoffed. “He’s not even wearing a bowtie.”

“I know, darling. Probably because he knows he couldn’t compete with you on that front. Now, what is all this?”

“This is, well,” with a flick of his hands, he threw the data up so she could see it. Her gaze moved from a large, pasty monster wreaking havoc in Splot to a man with a shield in an old newsreel to a metallic monster destroying a small town to a pair of assassins, one of them with a bow and arrow, firing at an enemy.

“I’m going to take the Quinjet to Paris tonight.”

“Go in the morning.”

She shook her head. “You have homework. You have _a lot_ of homework and I need to put the fear of you into our Parisian factory.”

“But, we were having a moment! What if I didn’t have homework?”

“Oh, well, then.” She leaned in and whispered into his ear, and Ianto could see the blush on the Doctor’s face from across the room.

“I’ll hold you to that. I could _definitely_ get behind that.”

“Oh, you would,” she said before kissing him. “Ianto Jones!” she called out, going over to him. “Could you give a lady a lift to Heathrow?”

“Of course.”

“Good,” she said, linking her arm through his. “How is it going with that foreigner of yours?”

Ianto coughed. “Oh, he had to go home. Problems with his visa.”

“What? Boo. Get me his info. I’m sure we can hire him as some sort of consultant and get it all straightened out,” she said as the elevator doors closed.

The Doctor sighed, resigned to an evening without River-approved fun and games, and settled down with the files Jones had brought him.

“Just you and me and data again, Sexy,” he said.

“Like old times,” IDRIS replied.


	4. Part III--Shindig

**Part III—Shindig**  
Ianto Jones could barely contain his excitement. He was sitting in a Quinjet, not uncommon in and of itself, checking in with the _Valiant_ to let them know they were on schedule and would be arriving soon. That also was not uncommon. No, what had cool, collected and composed Ianto Jones ready to jump out of his skin was the fact that Captain Jack Harkness—the Captain Jack Harkness—was sitting less than five feet from him. Captain Jack had been Ianto’s hero as long as he could remember. The man’s desire to do good and protect people just because it was the right thing to do had been what led Ianto along his life’s path. When he had met Boe, he had seen something of Captain Jack in him, which had led him to giving Boe the name of Jack Harker when helping Dr. Sato fake credentials for the man.

But to have the real Captain Jack Harkness so close to him was another matter entirely. 

He took the headset off and set it down carefully, schooling his features into his usual professional mask. He rose and walked over to where Captain Jack was reading the pertinent files off his tablet.

“So this Dr. Harper was trying to recreate the Super Soldier serum?” Captain Jack asked as Ianto joined him.

“A lot of people were. We lost Dr. Brandon’s original formula and the Doctor’s father—well, you’d know him as the Doctor, also—buried his notes away where no one could find them; well, except maybe his son, and his relationship with TORCHWOOD is tenuous, at best. For seventy years, various parties have been trying to recreate the serum. Dr. Harper thought gamma radiation was the way to go.”

“That didn’t work out too well for him,” Jack said as he watched the footage.

“No. No, it didn’t.”

“Are we almost there?” Jack said, looking up at him.

“Yes. We should be able to see the _Valiant_ ,” Ianto said, nodding at the front of the Quinjet.

Jack stood and walked to stand behind the pilot. He could see the massive aircraft carrier floating in the ocean.

Ianto joined him, standing as close as he dared. “When we get on board, we’ll have a debrief and take you to your new uniform. I, um,” he coughed, nervous, “I had some input on the upgrades.”

Jack gave him a pained grin. “The Stars and Stripes? Isn’t that a little…old fashioned? And the wrong country?”

“With what’s coming, we could use a little old fashioned. And Captain Jack was a soldier who belonged to everyone.”

Jack gave him a long look. “If you say so.”

“I do.”  
*****

In the shadowy darkness of a perfect bad guy’s hideaway, scientists that Gray had recruited (through the manipulation of Sato’s and Hart’s wills) worked to finish the equipment which would unleash the full power of the Tesseract. Gray sat apart from them, his scepter across his knees as he projected his essence back to the plane of the Kovarian.

“Our Chitauri grow restless, Gray,” the Kovarian said.

Gray shrugged. “Let them gird themselves and have patience. I will lead them into glorious battle.”

“Battle? Against the meager might of Earth?” the Kovarian sneered.

“Glorious, but not lengthy,” Gray explained. “If, of course, your force is as formidable as you say.”

The Kovarian grabbed him by the throat. “You question us? We, who put the scepter in your hand and gave you purpose after you had been cast out and defeated?”

Gray snarled and flung her hand away. “I was the rightful king!”

The Kovarian snorted. “We look beyond this meager Earth to greater worlds. Worlds which the Tesseract will bring to us.”

“You don’t have the Tesseract yet,” Gray pointed out.

The Kovarian hissed.

“I do not threaten,” Gray said, lifting his hands in submission. “But until I open the doors, your force is mine.”

“You will have your war, Gray. But if you fail—if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren world upon which you can hide. And when we are done with you, you will long for something as sweet and simple as _pain_!”

Gray gasped as he was forced back into the real world, blood trickling from his nose as a reminder of the Kovarian’s displeasure.  
*****

Jack was glad when they finally landed on the _Valiant_. Agent Jones seemed competent and nice, but the way he looked at Jack made him nervous. He recognized the hero worship; he was afraid Jones was putting more faith in him than was strictly deserved. He’d let his people down before; he didn’t want to do it again.

He followed Jones down the ramp onto the carrier, where they were greeted by a stunning blonde woman wearing jeans, a red sweater and white leather jacket.

“Hopkins wants to see you,” she said to Jones.

“Of course he does. Captain Jack Harkness, Hannah Summers-Fogg. She’ll make sure you get settled in.”

Hannah winked at Jones. “I’ll leave the best of the settling for you.”

Jones rolled his eyes and hurried away.

Jack gave Hannah a look which had made lesser men quiver.

Hannah just smiled. “Relax, Jack. TORCHWOOD has a policy of ‘don’t care, don’t wanna know’. And I was just teasing. Your virtue is safe with Jones; he’s pining for someone else. I make no promises about myself, though.”

Jack coughed.

“Oh, this could be fun,” she said.

Jack actually looked scared.

“Oh, relax. Has Ianto mentioned his cards to you?”

“Beg pardon?”

“The collectible trading cards he has of you.”

“People still have those?” Jack asked, shocked. He hadn’t believed it when the RAF had suggested making the cards to sell for the war effort. He had thought it was a waste of money. 

“He’s spent years collecting them. He’ll probably ask you to sign them. He’s very proud.”

“I’ll, um…”

“It’s just your signature, handsome, not an invitation to dance the horizontal mambo.”

“You’re very…blunt.”

She snorted. “That may be the nicest way anyone has ever said that.”

Jack was at a loss for words.

She smiled, and the expression gave a softness to her face. “Come on, Captain. There’s someone you should meet,” she said, gently taking his arm.

They walked over toward the edge of the carrier.

“This must all seem so shocking and new to you,” she said as they walked.

He looked around at the soldiers readying planes and going through maneuvers.

“Actually, this is very familiar.”

She smiled. “Dr. Harper,” she called out.

A man with close-cropped hair wearing battered jeans, a ratty t-shirt and a windbreaker turned to face them.

“Agent Summers-Fogg. Nice to see you again.”

Hannah grinned. “You are _such_ a good liar, Owen. Captain Jack Harkness, this is Dr. Owen Harper.”

Jack reached out to shake his hand. “Doctor, I hear you’re going to help us find the Tesseract.”

Owen’s gaze flicked from Jack to Hannah and back. “Is that all you’ve heard about me?”

“It’s all I care about,” he replied firmly.

Owen gave him a small smile.

A loud alert sounded across the air.

“Gentlemen, we should move inside,” Hannah said. “It’s about to get difficult to breathe out here.”

Jack looked around and saw airmen putting on what looked like gas masks.

Owen looked over the side. “Are we going to submerge? Really? Hopkins thinks it’s a good idea to put me in a submersible?”

“Just wait,” Hannah said.

Owen and Jack watched in open-mouthed astonishment as the water started to roil furiously and engines began to surface.

“Oh, no, this is _much_ worse,” Owen said as he realized they were about to take to the air.

“If you’ll follow me,” Hannah called to them.

The two men immediately fell into step behind her.

When they reached the bridge of the _Valiant_ , Hannah left the two men behind, moving quickly to a terminal Rhys Williams manned, following the tracking of Hart.

Owen stared around in awe, his inner scientist itching to get his hands on the tech and make it bend to his will. His thoughts were quickly stunted by the sight of the armed security guards. Without thinking about it, he lapsed into his ‘run and hide’ persona, ducking his head and not making eye contact with the guards.

Jack was mesmerized by the technology. In his career, he had seen many marvels in the arena of warfare technology. But the _Valiant_? Oh, she was a wonder to behold. 

“All sectors report ready, Director,” Gwen said.

“All right. Let’s disappear,” Hopkins said from his place at the con.

Jack didn’t understand the tech, but he did understand the readings on the screen in front of him, which told him that the _Valiant_ was not only airborne, she was also seemingly invisible. He walked up to Hopkins and handed him a ten pound note.

Hopkins took it with a smirk and turned to Owen. “Dr. Harper, thank you for coming.”

Owen ducked his head. “Thank you for asking nicely,” he replied, nodding at Hannah. “How long do I have to stay here?”

“Dr. Harper, I just need you to find the Tesseract. Once you’ve done that, your work is done and you can go.”

“Where are you with finding it?”

Hopkins nodded to Ianto, who took up the briefing. “We have eyes on every camera on the planet. Smart phones, regular phones, tablets, security cameras, tin cans tied together with bits of string. We have all the phones. If it’s connected to the internet, it’s ours.”

“That still doesn’t mean we’ll find him in time,” Hannah said darkly, watching video of Hart being overcome by the scepter.

Hopkins sighed. The shouting match that had erupted between Hannah and Gwen during Hannah’s debrief had already reached legendary status among those on the _Valiant_. He was quite sure that the only reason Hannah wasn’t in the brig for murdering a superior officer was the fact that Ianto had also been in the briefing and he had managed—somehow—to calm down the assassin. None of the three was talking about what had been said, and Hopkins had a sinking suspicion that he would never get Ianto drunk enough to find out. Cooper, however…

Dr. Harper’s eyes darted between Hannah, Hopkins and Ianto. He cleared his throat. “Call every lab you have and tell them to put their spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma radiation. I’ll hash out a rough tracking algorithm with clusters; it’ll allow you to rule out a few places.”

Hopkins flicked his gaze to Ianto, who nodded.

“Do you have somewhere for me to work?” Owen asked.

“Agent Fogg,” Hopkins snapped.

Hannah rolled her eyes, but rose from her crouch to await his orders.

“Show Dr. Harper to his lab.”

“Follow me, Harp. You’ll love this place. We’ve got all the toys,” she said, leading him off the bridge.

“I thought your name was Summers-Fogg,” Owen said as he followed her.

“It is.”

“But Hopkins only used ‘Fogg’.”

“Are you familiar with ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, first of all, TORCHWOOD has never had that policy. You know, in case that’s of concern to you or anything.”

Owen just looked at her, still not used to her blunt nature.

“Anyway, Hopkins has a modified version of it—‘Don’t Mention, Won’t Appear’—when it comes to my mother. Hence, he only uses the ‘Fogg’.”

“This is a weird organization.”

“Really?” she asked, pausing at a large door. “ _That’s_ the deciding factor? Maybe you’re not ready for this lab, then.”

Owen folded his arms over his chest and waited.

She smirked and opened the door for him. “We’ll have your palm print uploaded for access shortly. In the meantime, make yourself at home.”

Owen stood just inside the lab and fought down the equally strong (and strikingly at odds) desires to make grabby hands like a four-year-old and to rub himself against the equipment.

Hannah watched him survey the lab. “For the record, our fraternization policy of ‘Whatever Works’ also applies to the machinery.”  
*****

Dr. Sato was in her element; she was working with energy and putting together machinery to accomplish the goal set before her by Gray. A small part of her knew there was something wrong with all this, but the beauty of the knowledge-the truths—opening themselves up before her was too much to ignore.

“Where did you find all these people?” she asked Hart as she supervised her workers. Whom she absolutely did not think of as her minions.

Hart snorted as he worked the tablet in his hands. “TORCHWOOD has no shortage of enemies.” He spun the tablet so she could see it. “Is this the stuff you need?”

Tosh stepped closer and looked at the image. “Yes! Darwicatnium; it’s found in meteorites. It forms anti-protons. It is, unfortunately, rather hard to get your hands on.”

“Especially if TORCHWOOD knows you need it.”

“Maybe they won’t know. I didn’t know.”

“They have Ianto Jones. They’ll know.”

“How are we doing, Dr. Sato?” Gray asked as he joined them.

“Wonderfully!” she gushed. “The Tesseract has shown me so much! It’s more than knowledge, it’s _truth_.”

“Power, not truth,” Gray corrected.

Tosh nodded uncertainly.

“And what did it show you, Agent Hart?”

“My next target,” he said, handing Gray the tablet.

Gray stroked a hand over Hart’s shoulder. “Tell me what you need,” he purred.

Hart slid away and moved to his weapons case, lifting out his bow. “I need a distraction. And an eyeball.”  
*****

“Sign. Please.”

Captain Jack turned to look at Ianto Jones, who had been standing beside him on the bridge for several minutes. “Sorry?” he asked.

“No, I’m sorry,” Ianto said, blushing. “I meant to ask, politely, if you would sign my Captain Jack cards. If it’s not too much trouble.”

“Of course.”

“It’s a vintage set. It took me years to get them all. They’re near-mint, with slight foxing around the edges.”

“I’d love to see them.”

“We’ve got a hit,” Rhys called from his station.

“How close?” Ianto asked, all thought of the cards (and the associated fanboying) gone.

“67%. No, 79%,” Rhys replied.

“Location?” Hopkins asked.

“Stuttgart, Germany. 39 Konigstrasse.”

“King’s Street. Bloody perfect,” Ianto muttered.

“Captain Harkness, you’re up,” Hopkins said.

“Come with me, Captain. I’ll show you where your suit is,” Ianto said.

Jack followed the other man off the bridge.

“Are we activating?” Hannah asked as she met them in the hall.

“We are. Get suited up and meet us on deck,” Ianto said, barely slowing his stride.

“I get to fly?”

“You get to co-pilot and work the weapons system.”

“I never get to fly,” she pouted.

“There’s a reason,” Ianto tossed over his shoulder before he and Jack turned a corner.

“There is?” Jack asked.

“Several, actually. The important one is Budapest; I’ll get you the post-mission report. It’s not pretty.”  
****

Gray stood on the landing of the concert hall, staring down at the glitterati interacting during the intermission. He smoothed down the lapels of his obscenely fashionable suit, taking in the covetous looks cast his way with a smile. In the back of his mind, he could see Hart making his way through the guards at the laboratory, waiting for Gray to finish his half of the mission.

With another grin, Gray began to descend the stairs, swinging his walking stick in time with the music. He made his way confidently toward Dr. Hans Gruber, catching the movement of a security officer out of the corner of his eye. He quickly flipped his walking stick and struck the guard across the face with it. Before the group had a chance to recover or react to the shock, he grabbed Gruber by the collar and threw him onto a lovely piece of Mycenaean sculpture. He shot a deathly glare at the crowd as he pulled a device out of his pocket. He admitted it was crude, but he acknowledged the need for expediency. He placed it over Gruber’s left eye and smiled as a whirring, grinding noise began, soon to be drowned out by the screams of the doctor. In his mind’s eye, Gray could see Hart holding the device’s twin to the access point at the lab. Once Hart was in and had his hands on the Darwicatnium, he dropped Gruber’s body and calmly followed the screaming and fleeing masses into the street.

As he walked, Gray used his magic to transform his suit into his more comfortable battle gear, his walking stick shifting into its natural spear shape. He sauntered into the street and watched the people huddle in the square, uncertain of what to do. Some intrepid soul must have called the authorities, because a police car came speeding up the street with its siren blaring. He sent a blast its way, causing the car to flip end-over-end down the street.

Gray stopped at the edge of the square. “Kneel!” he ordered the group.

They looked around, terrified.

He quickly made magical copies of himself and placed them at all four corners of the square. “I said _KNEEL_!” he shouted, the order coming from his mouth and those of the copies.

He smiled as several screams and whimpers were emitted by the crowd as they complied. 

“Is this not simpler?” he asked as he walked through the crowd. “Is this not your natural state? It is the unspoken—but not unknown—truth of humanity,” he sneered, “that you crave subjugation. Freedom is a lie. Freedom crushes you in your scramble for power and identity. Allow me to save you some angst and heartache: your identity is to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

As he finished his sentence, and older man slowly got to his feet and turned to face Gray.

“Not to men like you,” he said.

Gray laughed. “There are no _men_ like me.”

The man shook his head sadly. “There are always men like you.”

Gray scowled. “Look to your elder, sheep. Let him be the example.” He lifted the spear and fired a blast of energy at the man. He had only moments to register the blur of blue landing in front of the older man before he was blown off his feet by his deflected blast.

“You know,” the man in blue said, “the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, he and I ended up having a difference of opinion.”

Gray laughed and gained his feet. “The soldier,” he said, recognizing Captain Jack from Hart’s memories. “The man out of time.”

Jack smiled. “I’m not the one who’s out of time.”

Gray heard the whine of an engine and looked over Jack’s shoulder to see a Quinjet coming into view. As he watched, a rather impressive gun turret dropped from its belly.

“Gray,” called a female voice, “drop your weapons and stand down.”

Gray laughed and fired a shot at the Quinjet.

“Bat rastard!” Hannah shouted inside the Quinjet as the pilot easily maneuvered them out of the way. She tightened her hands on the weapons control and narrowed her eyes as she watched the battle below. “Fuck, this guy’s all over the place,” she muttered. She cringed as she watched the two men, knowing full well that her after-mission report would only be able to consist of, ‘and then they fought,’ due to the speed with which the men landed blows.

“Agent Summers-Fogg, did you miss me?”

Hannah swore under her breath as the Doctor’s voice filled her headset. _Of course_ the man had hacked their comms system. She turned her head to see the TARDIS streaking their way, the Doctor’s questionable taste in music blasting over the line.

Captain Jack was grateful the Doctor liked to make an entrance, the music that sounded like dinosaurs in the thrall of a particularly violent orgasm giving him enough warning to be able to duck out of the way. The TARDIS landed safely to his left, the Doctor firing a blast of energy from his gauntlet at Gray.

Gray collapsed against a pillar, catching his breath.

“Make a move, Scarface,” the Doctor said.

Gray slowly and carefully lifted his hands.

“Doctor,” Jack said.

“Cap’n Tightpants,” the Doctor replied.

Jack sighed and moved forward to escort Gray onto the Quinjet.  
*****

“Has he said anything?” Hopkins asked Hannah over the comm line.

“Not a word,” she replied quietly.

“Get him here. We’re low on time.”

“Roger that. You heard the man,” she said to the pilot.

“This is as ‘faster’ as I can go,” he replied calmly.

She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the men in the back of the jet.

“I don’t like it,” Jack said to the Doctor, who had taken off his helmet but left the rest of his TARDIS armor on.

“What? Gray giving up so easily?”

“I don’t remember it being that easy,” Jack said, rubbing a spot on his jaw where Gray had landed a good punch.

“Still, you held your own. You’re pretty spry for someone who spent 70 years as a Capsicle. What’s your secret? Pilates?”

“What?”

“It’s like yoga, but with more swearing.”

Jack gave him a blank look.

“And yoga’s like calisthenics with more dirty poses.”

“You are a very odd man.”

“You have no idea,” came a female voice from inside the Doctor’s helmet.

“What the heck?” Jack asked.

The Doctor sighed and picked up his helmet, pressing a few buttons before a holographic image of a woman’s head and shoulders appeared.

“Well, hello, nurse!” she said.

“He won’t get that, River,” the Doctor said.

“Pity. I suppose we could take it upon ourselves to educate him. Bring him by the tower, won’t you?”

“Bit busy saving the word, dear.”

“Of course, sweetie. Do say hello to Hannah for me.”

“Hi, River!” Hannah called from the cockpit.

The Doctor quickly shut off the transmission before the women could converse further.

“My wife. I try to keep her and Agent Summers-Fogg apart as much as possible. Better for the…universe.”

Jack nodded, thoroughly confused.

“Whoa!” Hannah shouted as lightning flashed and danced in front of the windshield. “Where the hell is this coming from?”

Jack turned to look at Gray when he heard a sharp intake of breath.

“What’s the matter? You afraid of a little lightning?” he asked.

“I’m not entirely fond of what follows,” Gray said. He remembered—courtesy of Hart—that lightning had heralded Boe’s arrival from their own realm, and his resurrection after Gray had sent the Destroyer after him. The Destroyer, which had slaughtered his own minions, but had failed to eradicate Boe and the puny humans he insisted on protecting.

Jack quickly grabbed hold of a support strut as the Quinjet rocked. “What’s going on?”

The Doctor put his helmet on. “IDRIS?”

“I thought your wife’s name was River,” Jack said, confused.

The Doctor held up a hand. “IDRIS is my AI. IDRIS, status.”

“A being with a 96% match to the alien known as Boe has landed on the Quinjet,” IDRIS replied, her response routed through the helmet’s external speakers.

“Another Shane?” Hannah called back.

“Friendly?” Jack asked.

“Don’t know,” the Doctor said as he opened the ramp.

“What are you doing?”

“Do you want them to try to land with him on the Quinjet?”

“I vote no!” Hannah called.

Jack’s reply was cut off as a figure landed in the cargo hold.

“Holy crap!” Hannah, who had turned in her chair to look, said.

The man—Boe—was dressed in black leather trousers, a black leather vest, boots and what appeared to be a sweeping black cape.

“Boe, we need—” Jack stopped talking as Boe strode to Gray, picked him up by his throat and marched them both down the ramp, diving out into the night.

“Really?” the Doctor said, storming after them.

“What are you doing?” Jack shouted after him.

“Going after them. If Boe sets Gray free or kills him, we lose the Tesseract forever.”

“Wait! We need a plan of attack!” Jack called after him.

“I have a plan: attack. Keep the home fires burning, will you? Geronimo!” he replied, then dove out after the two Shane.

Jack swallowed a string of curses and began shrugging into a parachute.

“I’d sit this one out if I were you, Cap,” Hannah said.

“Don’t see how I can.”

“These guys are basically gods.”

“There’s only one God, ma’am. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that,” he said before jumping out of the plane.

“If He did, I’d go to church more often,” Hannah muttered. She caught the pilot’s startled look. “Oh, like _you_ weren’t thinking it.”  
*****

Boe set down on an outcropping, flinging Gray away from him. “What did you think you were doing?”

Gray laughed. “Hello, brother dear. How many favors did you have to call in to get back here?”

“As many as I needed. I repeat: what did you think you were doing?”

“I thought—I think—that I’m about to take this world and remake it in the image that most pleases me.”

“And you made a deal with the Kovarian? Why?” he asked, grasping Gray by his shoulders and hauling him up until they were face-to-face.

“Because it would vex you,” he spat in Boe’s face.

Boe’s fingers suddenly felt nerveless, causing him to lose his grip on Gray. “What?”

Gray stepped back and collected himself, smoothing his hair down and straightening his clothing. “I wanted this world because you wanted it. I wanted this world to destroy it the way you destroyed me.”

“Gray,” Boe began, his voice thick with desolation. “You are my brother. I love you. Don’t you remember all our adventures? Those beautiful days along the coast?”

“Remember?” Gray snarled. “Oh, I remember, brother. I remember an invasion. I remember the scariest thing in the world. And I remember you _letting go of my hand_.”

Boe was unable to bite back the sob. “I tried, Gray. I tried so hard! But I was—”

“‘But you were only a boy.’ Yes, I know. I’ve been told. Repeatedly. As if that could change what you let happen to me!”

“Gray, if I could do anything—give anything—that would take it back, I would.”

“Oh, you can, big brother. You can give me this world.”

“Gray, no.”

“Boe, yes.”

“Gray, tell me where the Tesseract is. We will get it and use it to get home. We can work this out.”

“We can’t, actually.”

“Gray,” Boe growled.

Gray laughed, a manic edge to the sound. “You need the Tesseract to get home. But I’ve sent it off and I know not where it is now.”

Boe’s entire demeanor hardened. “I will not let you do this, Gray. Our battles are between us. I will not let you put others in danger over our issues. Hear me when I say—” Boe was cut off as a blur of impossible blue whisked him away.

“Oh, dear. I can’t ‘hear you now’,” Gray said to the empty air.  
****

The Doctor dropped Boe on his ass in the middle of a clearing in the nearby woods. He landed seconds later, smirking as Boe got to his feet and flung his cape back with righteous anger.

“Don’t touch me again,” Boe said.

“Then don’t take my things.”

Boe shook his head. “You have no damn idea what you are dealing with.”

The Doctor took in his surroundings and Boe’s attire. “Cole Porter After Dark? _Sharknado II_?”

“This is beyond you, Metal Man. Gray will face the justice of the Shane.”

The Doctor spread his arms. “Gray gives up the Tesseract to us and he’s all yours. Until then, stay out of my way. You think I don’t know what I’m dealing with? You have no idea who you are dealing with. They don’t call me the Oncoming Storm for nothing.”

Boe snatched the hammer hanging from his belt and threw it at the Doctor.

The Doctor grunted inside his armor as he flew into a tree. He watched with scientific fascination as the hammer detached itself from his armor and flew back to Boe’s hand.

“Okay. Have it your way,” the Doctor said, firing a blast at Boe.

From the outcropping Boe had abandoned him on, Gray watched the ensuing fight with great interest. He knew about the Doctor and his TARDIS armor, but seeing both the man and the machine in action was educational.

Boe laughed as he regained his feet and lifted his hammer to the sky, calling down lightning. The Doctor watched with interest until Boe aimed the hammer at him and shot the lightning straight into his chestplate. 

“Power is now at 400% capacity,” IDRIS informed him.

“Well, how about that. Let’s see how he likes it,” the Doctor said, before upping the power to his thrusters and shooting into the air. 

Boe leapt up to meet him and they crashed into each other in midair. Clawing and kicking at each other, they flew into the side of the mountain Gray sat upon and then caromed down into the clearing. They crashed and rolled apart, coming up ready for another round.

“Ow!” the Doctor said as something impacted his arm. He saw Boe jerk back as he was impacted on the rebound, then followed the projectile’s trajectory to the outstretched hand of Captain Jack.

Jack caught his shield and secured it on his forearm. “That’s _enough_ ,” he said in his most commanding voice. He turned to look at Boe. “I don’t know what you plan on doing here, but we are not your enemy.”

Boe sighed and rolled his eyes, somehow making both expressions look more epic than petulant. “I am here to put an end to Gray’s machinations.”

Jack nodded. “Prove it. Put down the hammer.”

“No!” the Doctor said. “Don’t ask him. He loves the—”

Boe Grinned. “You want me to put the hammer down?”

“Oh, we’re doomed,” the Doctor muttered as he watched Jack and Boe charge each other.

Boe leapt to the air, the hammer raised over his head to land a mighty blow. Jack held his shield up in an instinctive defensive move. The hammer connected with the shield, causing a blinding light as the two powerful energies converged. The Doctor found himself thrown to the ground with the other two men.

“Are we done here?” the Doctor groaned quietly. “Because I am beyond done. The light from Done no longer reaches me.”


	5. Part IV--A Hole in the World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That **MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH** is in this chapter. So are the non-con and torture threats. So you're warned.

**Part IV—A Hole in the World**  
Gray’s hands were bound in front of him by cuffs which had withstood all of TORCHWOOD’s testing against foes both mortal and mutant. He was escorted down the corridors of the _Valiant_ by no less than a dozen guards. The cadre marched past Dr. Harper’s lab, and the scientist looked up at the commotion as it moved past his domain. Gray turned his head and _smiled_ at him as he was escorted along. Dr. Harper shivered and knew it would be a long time before he tossed off the malice of Gray’s gesture.

Moments later, Gray had been escorted into a large round cell. The cell had no corners and was clear all the way around. It contained no furniture, and no implements which could be turned into weapons.

Hopkins smiled as he watched Gray survey his new surroundings. He walked over to a control panel and started pressing buttons as he spoke. “In case it’s unclear, if you try to escape from that cell, if you so much as lick the glass, your arse gets dropped 30,000 feet straight down into the ocean inside that steel trap. You understand how that works? Ant, meet boot,” he said, waving at the control panel.

Gray smirked and nodded. “It’s an impressive cage, Director Hopkins. But not one that was built just for little old me.”

“No, it was built for something much stronger than you.”

“Oh, I’ve heard about _him_ ,” Gray said, looking up at one of the cameras in the hold. He nodded at the camera. “The mindless beast who likes to pretend he’s still a man.” He turned his attention back to Hopkins. “You have gathered such lost, disparate creatures to defend you. How desperate you must be.”

Hopkins’ thoughts turned to Gwen, Boe, Hannah, River Song and Dr. Harper sitting on his bridge watching the exchange. He’d agree to disparate; but he had faith in them. He turned his attention back to Gray.

“‘How desperate I must be’? You threaten my world with war. You steal a power source you cannot possibly control. You kill because it’s fun.”

At this, Gray smiled.

“You have made me very desperate, Gray.” He thought again of the team he had assembled. “You may not be glad you did.”

“Ooh, it burns you to have come so close. To have had power, unlimited power, within your grasp. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share,” he practically cooed the last part. His expression then turned to a haughty sneer. “And then to be reminded what _real power_ is.”

Hopkins snorted and closed the chute under the cell. “I’ll be on my bridge. Let me know if _real power_ needs a blanket,” he said as he walked off.  
*****

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?” Owen asked as he turned off the footage of Gray in the cell.

“Gray’s going to drag this whole thing out,” Jack said. “Boe, what’s his play?”

Boe sighed and folded his arms over his chest, earning appreciative looks from Hannah, Gwen and River. “He has an army. They are not of Shane or any world known to you. He means to lead them against your people and, in return for the Tesseract, his master will give him this planet.”

“An army. From outer space,” Jack said slowly.

“So, Gray is building another portal,” Owen said.

“That’s what he needs Dr. Sato for,” River added, nodding.

“Dr. Sato?” Boe asked.

“She’s an astrophysicist,” River supplied.

“She’s a friend. I met her when I was here before.”

“Gray has her under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours,” Hannah said, her voice low.

River reached out and put her hand Hannah’s shoulder, squeezing lightly.

“I want to know why he let us take him,” Jack said. “He’s not leading any army from that cell.”

Owen shook his head. “We shouldn’t be focusing on Gray. The man’s brain is a bag of wet cats.”

“You can smell the crazy on him,” River agreed.

“Have care how you speak,” Boe said sharply. “He is beyond reason, but he is of Shane and he is my brother.”

“He killed 80 people in two days,” Hannah said.

“He’s been traumatized!”

Hannah lifted an eyebrow. “Haven’t we all?”

Owen spared a moment to think that watching Boe and Hannah go toe-to-toe could be quite awesome before he decided to turn the conversation away from the impending violence.

“We should focus on the mechanics,” he said. “Darwicatnium. What do they need it for?”

“It’s a stabilizing agent.”

They turned to see the Doctor entering the bridge, walking backwards so he could finish his conversation with Ianto.

“I mean it, Ianto. Say the word and I will get the visa nonsense squared away for you. He can come on board at Gallifrey and it’ll be fine.”

“Thank you,” Ianto said, blushing.

“Stabilizing agent?” Jack asked.

“It means the portal won’t collapse on itself like it did at TORCHWOOD’s facility,” River explained.

The Doctor stopped dead and whirled around, meeting River’s gaze. He turned a betrayed look on Ianto. “A warning would have been nice.”

Hannah snickered.

“No hard feelings, Bondage Ken, you’ve got a mean swing,” the Doctor said, patting Boe’s bicep as he edged past him to the command center of the bridge. 

“It also means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Gray wants it to,” the Doctor said as he looked at all the screens. He put his hand over his left eye. “How does Hopkins even see these?” he asked, gesturing to the screens on his left.

“He turns,” Gwen replied, drily.

The Doctor snorted. “Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Hart can get his hands on pretty easily,” he said as he pressed tabs on the screens. He surreptitiously slid a small device onto the side of the terminal, allowing IDRIS to begin accessing the _Valiant_ ’s systems. “The only major component he needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick-start the process,” he said, making an explosion motion with his hands.

“When did you become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics?” Gwen asked.

“Last night. River here probably got caught up some time this morning.”

“Thanks, Sweetie,” River said as he stood behind her chair.

“How?” Jack asked.

“Dr. Sato’s notes in the packet,” the Doctor replied.

The others gave him blank looks. 

“Are River and I the only ones who did the reading?” he asked, shaking his head.

“Does he need any particular kind of power source?” Jack asked.

Owen nodded. “He’d have to heat the Tesseract to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the cooling barrier.”

“Unless Sato has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnel effect,” the Doctor replied, getting into his groove.

“Oh, she did,” River said.

The Doctor turned to look at her. 

She grinned and flipped open the folder in front of her, pointing out a specific graph to him. “She figured out you have to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”

“Then she could use any ion fusion reactor on the planet,” Owen said, awe in his voice.

“Someone who speaks English!” the Doctor said, walking over to Owen.

“Is that what just happened?” Jack asked Hannah.

“Good to meet you, Dr. Harper. We almost met in London a few years ago, with the pig thing,” the Doctor said, shaking Owen’s hand.

“Pig thing?” Owen asked, confused.

The Doctor waved his hand. “Never mind. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And, I’m a big fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous bug-eyed scaly rage monster.”

“Thanks,” Owen said, tartly.

“Dr. Harper is only here to track the Tesseract for us,” Hopkins said as he swept onto the bridge. He walked over to the command center and glanced over the information there before turning back to them. “I was hoping you might join him.”

“Alex!” the Doctor said cheerfully, walking to the other man with his arms open.

Hopkins fixed him with a steely gaze.

“No hug?” the Doctor asked, stopping a few feet from him.

“A world of no.”

Jack coughed. “You might want to start with that scepter of Gray’s. It works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon.”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Hopkins said sharply, “but it is powered by the Tesseract. And I’d very much like to know how he used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

“Monkeys?” Boe asked, confused. “I don’t understand.”

“I do!” Jack said, snapping his fingers. He sat back as he realized the others were staring at him. “I got that reference,” he offered quietly.

“Shall we play, Doctor?” the Doctor asked Owen.

“One moment, Sweetie,” River said. “There is still the matter of the alien army.”

“Army?” the Doctor asked.

“They’re called the Chitauri,” Boe offered.

“Wait, _that’s_ Gray's big plan? Chiclets?" Hannah asked. 

"Chitauri," Ianto corrected. 

"I _loved_ the Atari system. Such classic games. By the way, _that man_ is playing Galaga. And losing badly,” the Doctor said, pointing at Rhys. “You need a better class of geeks, Hopkins.”

“Rhys!” Gwen hissed at the man.

Rhys quickly switched screens and hunched down in his seat.

“If there isn’t anything else?” Hopkins said.

“This way, Doctor,” Owen said.

The Doctor turned to River. “Coming along?”

“I think I’ll stay up here. You boys have fun.”

The Doctor shrugged and followed Owen off the bridge.  
*****

“Well, the gamma readings off this thing are definitely consistent with the readings in Dr. Sato’s report,” Owen said as he finished his scan of the scepter. “But it’s going to take weeks to process them.”

The Doctor nodded from across the lab, where he was working at another terminal built from his own equipment. He had River to thank for that; it had been her idea to make sure he had the basic components he needed to work tucked away inside the TARDIS. A few minutes with his sonic screwdriver and he had everything ready to work his magic.

“If we bypass their mainframe and route it through my system, we can clock this thing out in, oh, under seven hours,” he said, his fingers moving rapidly over the touch screen to import Owen’s findings.

Owen snorted. “All I packed was a toothbrush,” he said, gesturing at the Doctor’s set-up.

“You should come by Gallifrey Tower some time. The top 12 floors are all R&D. You would love it. It’s like Candyland, but with explosions!”

“Thanks, but the last time I was on British soil, I kind of…broke Splot.”

“Best thing for Splot, so I hear,” the Doctor said, walking over to him.

Owen laughed despite himself.

“Look, I promise a stress-free environment,” he said as he passed behind Owen. “No tension, no surprises,” he said, then poked Owen with his sonic screwdriver.

“Ow!”

The Doctor leaned in close to stare into Owen’s eyes. “Nothing?”

“Hey!” Jack called from the doorway. “Are you nuts?”

“Yes, but highly functional,” the Doctor replied without looking at him. “You really have got a lid on it, haven’t you?” he asked Owen. “What’s your secret? Kitten videos, oboe recitals, giant bag of weed?”

“Is everything a joke to you?” Jack asked.

“Funny things are.”

“Threatening the lives of everyone on this ship isn’t funny.”

The Doctor finally turned to look at him. “It is if you do it right.”

“No offense meant, Owen,” Jack said.

Owen waved him off. “It’s all right. I wouldn’t have let Hannah bring me on board if I didn’t think I could handle it.”

“You are tiptoeing, my dear man. You need to strut,” the Doctor said, leading by example.

“And you need to focus, Doctor,” Jack chastised.

“You think I’m not? Why did Hopkins call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t work the math unless I have all the variables,” he said, reaching into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a bag of jelly babies. “Huh. Don’t remember putting those in there.”

“You think Hopkins is hiding something,” Jack said, finally getting the hang of the Doctor’s patter.

“He’s a spy, Captain. And we’re not talking White Queen spy; though she is quite impressive. And scary.” He waved his hands in the air. “Anyway, he is _the_ spy. His secrets have wee baby secrets. It’s bugging him, too. Isn’t it?” he said, looking at Owen.

“Um, I just want to finish my work.”

“Owen?” Jack asked.

Owen sighed and set down his tools. “Gray’s dig of ‘a warm light for all mankind’.”

“I remember,” Jack said.

“I think that was meant for the Doctor.”

The Doctor grinned and held out the bag of jelly babies. Owen shrugged and dug out a black currant one.

“Why?” Jack asked.

“Even if Hart didn’t tell Gray about Gallifrey Tower, it was all over the news.”

“Gallifrey Tower? You mean that huge eyeso—building in London?” 

“It’s powered by an arc reactor; a self-sustaining energy source. It will run itself for—what, a year?” Owen asked.

The Doctor nodded. “And that’s just the prototype.” He turned to Jack to explain. “I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now.”

Owen nodded. “Exactly. So why didn’t TORCHWOOD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What is an organization like TORCHWOOD doing dabbling in the energy field in the first place?”

The Doctor tapped his sonic screwdriver against his chin. “Yeah, I should probably look into that once my encryption program finishes breaking into TORCHWOOD’s files.”

“What is that thing?” Jack asked, pointing at the sonic screwdriver.

“Hmm? Oh, sonic screwdriver.”

“Why does a screwdriver need to be sonic?”

“There may have been a large amount of banana daiquiris involved.”

“I see—wait, did you say ‘breaking in’?”

“IDRIS has been running through their systems since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I’ll know every dirty little secret TORCHWOOD has ever tried to hide. Jelly baby?” he asked, holding out the bag.

Jack folded his arms across his chest and shook his head. “And you wonder why they didn’t want you on board.”

“An intelligence agency that fears intelligence? Historically, not fantastic.”

“I think Gray is trying to wind us up. We need to remember that he intends to start a war. If we don’t focus on that—on him—he is going to succeed. And we may not survive. We have orders; we should follow them.”

The Doctor hopped up on a counter and played with his sonic screwdriver. “Following’s not really my style, Captain.”

“And you’re all about style, aren’t you?” he said, pointing at the bowtie.

The Doctor preened. “You should see me in a fez.”

“Captain, tell me none of this smells hinky to you,” Owen said.

Jack looked over at him. “Just find the Tesseract,” he said before leaving the lab.

The Doctor watched him turn down the hallway, heading not toward the bridge, but further into the bowels of the Valiant. “For someone who wants to follow orders, he seems to be on the hunt for something.”

“He’s not wrong about Gray, though. He does have the jump on us. He’s got an army and a power source.”

“What he has is an ACME DIY roadrunner trap. It’s going to blow up in his face and I’m going to be there when it does.” He grinned widely at Owen. “Banana daiquiri in hand.”

“And I’ll read all about it in the news. Probably in a foreign language,” Owen muttered, going back to his work.

The Doctor nodded as he scrolled through his data. “Or you’ll be suiting up with the rest of us.”

Owen snorted. “I don’t get a suit of armor, Doctor. I’m like a raw nerve: exposed. The only way I can function most days is to pretend that I’ve died and come back as some kind of emotionless zombie.”

“I looked into something when I was young. It scared me so badly I tried to run; as fast and as far as I could. But it’s a part of me. I can’t get away from it. So I built the TARDIS. It’s a terrible privilege, having all that swirling inside of you.”

“But you can control it,” Owen pointed out.

“Some days more than others.” He walked over to where Owen was working and stared at the other man until he met his gaze. “Look, I read all about you, Dr. Harper. I’ve even read the super-secret reports of that accident that even Hopkins doesn’t know exist. That level of gamma radiation should have killed you.”

“Are you saying that the Weev—that the Other Guy saved my life?” Owen scoffed. “That’s a nice sentiment, Doctor. But saved me for what?”

The Doctor shrugged and moved back to his work. “I guess we’ll find out.”

“You may not enjoy that,” Owen warned.

The Doctor smiled. “And you just might.”  
*****

“I thought I might find you hiding up here.”

Ianto turned at the sound of Boe’s voice. He smiled softly. “I’m not hiding; I’m surveilling.”

“I thought we talked about you hiding yourself away instead of showing off your special brand of badassery.”

Ianto lifted an eyebrow. “And I thought we had a discussion about appropriate styles of dress in this realm.”

Boe looked down at his leather ensemble. “You said this was a good look for me. You said it with special emphasis.”

“It is and I did. But it’s not exactly the kind of outfit that will let you blend in.”

“I wasn’t planning on blending in.”

“What were you planning, exactly?”

Boe stepped closer, into Ianto’s personal space. “I was planning on stopping Gray. And then I was planning on cashing in on that rain check.”

Ianto smiled sadly. “We have to be careful.”

“Oh?” Boe asked, his own brows lifting.

“It’s no accident Gray took Tosh. She talks about you a lot. You changed her life. You changed…everything.”

Boe cupped Ianto’s face in his hands. “I’m just glad he didn’t take you. Gray’s anger is such that he will trample everything I hold dear.”

“Then he’ll be coming for me now.”

“How?” Boe asked, dropping his hands.

“Gray’s taken Hart.”

“And Hart know about us, so Gray knows.”

Ianto nodded.

“We have to be careful,” Boe sighed. 

“I’m sorry. This is not how I imagined your return.”

Boe gave him a slow, sensual smile. “Me neither. My way had you in considerably less clothes, courtesy of my teeth. And there was a lot more moaning involved.”

“Boe,” Ianto said softly.

Boe stepped closer and pulled Ianto into his arms, taking his mouth in a passionate kiss. Ianto relaxed into the kiss, pouring his longing into the embrace. Boe slipped his tongue between Ianto’s lips, deepening the kiss as he pressed Ianto back against a bulkhead. Ianto groaned into Boe’s mouth as he buried his fingers in Boe’s hair. Boe slid his hands down Ianto’s back, gripping the Ianto’s arse firmly and pulling their hips together. 

Ianto broke the kiss, gasping. “That’s not being careful.”

“You’re still wearing your clothes. That’s as careful as I’m willing to get.”

Ianto gently pushed Boe away. “Until we figure out Gray’s plan and stop him completely, there’s no such thing as too careful.”

Boe groaned and lowered his head as he let go of Ianto. “I can’t even hate him for this, because it is partly my fault.”

“You can’t blame yourself for Gray’s actions.”

“When I first came to this realm, Gray’s rage followed me and your people paid the price. I didn’t learn my lesson and it is happening again. In my youth, I would have called this war.”

“The war hasn’t started yet,” Hopkins said from the doorway.

Ianto and Boe turned to face him.

Hopkins walked over to Boe, nodding at Ianto as the other man slipped out of the room to return to the bridge. “Do you think you can make Gray tell us where the Tesseract is?”

Boe shook his head. “His mind is far from sound. It is not just power he wants, but vengeance upon me. There is no pain that could sway him from his course.”

“A lot of people think that. Until the pain starts,” Hopkins said darkly.

Boe narrowed his eyes. “What are you asking me to do?”

“Right now, I’m just asking what you are prepared to do to put an end to this madness.”

“Gray is a _prisoner_.”

Hopkins leaned in. “Then why do I feel like he’s the only person here who is _exactly_ where he wants to be?”  
*****

Captain Jack was still cursing the Doctor in his head as he came to the secure storage area. He looked around to make sure he didn’t have any company, then began forcing the door. He could feel the metal fighting him, but he put his weight into it and managed to open the door enough to slip through. He found himself in a large cargo hold, the room barely lit by soft lights in the floor and hanging from the ceiling. He leapt up onto the catwalk, landing with ease and spending a moment to contemplate just how often he had been making great leaps since the serum.

He shook himself out of his reverie and moved toward the back of the room. Countless raids on Nazi and Hydra bases—and a few clandestine searches through his own bases—had taught him that, no matter the intentions of the group, people always hid what they most feared in the back of the room. He thought it probably had more to with not wanting your enemy to stumble upon your secret stash right out of the gate, but it probably also had a lot to do with human nature.

He squeezed between two tall stacks of crates and found an innocuous metal table bolted to the floor. On a hunch, he ducked down and pulled a large, heavy box from beneath the table. He forced the lock open and lifted the lid, gasping in anger and fear at the contacts.

_No, no, no, no, no, no, no. How could they? How could they?_  
*****

Gray paced in his cell, running a mental countdown as to when Dr. Sato would have their device in place. Not long now, and even less time before Hart put his part of the plan into action. He stopped when he felt a presence outside the cage. It puzzled him, as he hadn’t felt anyone approaching, they were just suddenly there. He turned with a smile on his face to see a blonde woman in a white catsuit standing on the other side of the glass, her arms folded over her ample chest. He took in the weapons strapped to her thighs (and considered those undoubtedly hidden on her person) and his grin widened.

“Impressive,” he said. “There aren’t many who can sneak up on me.”

Hannah Summers-Fogg lifted an eyebrow. “But you’re not surprised to see me. You figured I’d come.”

He nodded as he moved closer to the glass. “After. After Hopkins and his friends had gone through all their tortures. After Boe had wept so prettily and pleaded with me to see reason. I thought you would appear as a friend, a balm to my wounded soul. And once you had gained my trust, I would have, of course, cooperated.”

“I want to know what you’ve done to Agent Hart.”

“I have merely…expanded his mind.”

Hannah snorted. “There are many people that would tell you that might not have been your best idea.”

“We’ll have to see how it plays out, then, won’t we?”

“And once you’ve won; once you are king of the hill, what happens to Hart’s mind?” she asked quietly.

Gray put a hand over his heart. “Is this…is this _love_ , Agent Summers-Fogg?”

“Love is for children. This is a debt I owe.”

“Oooo, a debt. Tell me,” he said, waving to a chair someone had left out.

Hannah took a deep breath and sat. “Before I worked for TORCHWOOD, I—well, let’s just say I made a name for myself. I have a very _specific_ skill set. And I didn’t care who I used it for or on. I managed to get myself smack in the middle of TORCHWOOD’s radar in a bad way. Hart was sent to kill me and, in the end, he made a different call.”

“And if I vow to spare this savior of yours, what will you do?”

She snorted. “Not let you out.”

He laughed. “No, but I _like_ this. You’re fun. Your world is hanging in the balance and you sit there bargaining for the life of one man.”

“Regimes fall every day,” she said, shrugging. “I tend to not weep over that; I’m British. In a roundabout way. And I never really bought into that whole ‘needs of the many’ nonsense. It’s really not that complicated: I have red in my ledger and I want to wipe it out.”

Gray’s eyes narrowed as he stopped only inches from the glass. “Can you, Hannah? Can you wipe out that much red? Your ledger is dripping with so much blood you can taste the metal. It gushes every time you take a breath. Do you honestly think that saving one man—a man no more virtuous than you—will change anything? Do you think there is anything you can do to make up for all of it? Hart told me everything. Daughter of the Hawk. Sister of the Wolf. Mother of Dragons. Oh, yes. I know them all. Everything Hart knows, I know. All your deepest, darkest secrets were mine for the taking. I can’t tell you the pleasure all that destruction brought me. You are a liar and a killer in the service of liars and murderers. You clutch your ledger to your chest and tell yourself it gives you a code that makes up for all the horrors. But those entries in that ledger are a part of you and they will never. Go. Away.”

Hannah’s breath caught and her eyes widened.

“I’m going to have him kill you slowly, intimately, in all the ways he knows scare you to your marrow. And maybe he’ll enjoy some of it; because deep down in your dark core, there’s a part of you that knows he’d enjoy watching you _burn_.”

She gasped.

“And I’m going to have him do all that with that pretty pink fnarl sticker he gave you for your birthday,” he snarled.

She turned her back on him with a sharp cry. “You’re a monster,” she whispered, her voice filled with tears.

He chuckled and stepped back. “Oh, no, no, no. _You_ brought the monster.”

Hannah’s back straightened and she turned to face him with a tear-free face. “So. That’s your play—Dr. Harper.”

“What? No, wait!”

She pressed her fingertip to her ear, activating her comm. “Gray intends to unleash Weevil. Keep Owen in the lab, I’m on my way. You may want to send Boe as well.”

She paused on her way out and turned to Gray with a sweet smile on her face. “Thank you for your cooperation.”  
*****

“What are you doing, Doctor?” Hopkins asked as he swept into the lab.

“You know, I was wondering the same thing about you, Alex,” the Doctor said from his perch seated on a lab table.

“You are supposed to be locating the Tesseract.”

“We are. The model is locked and we’re sweeping for its signature,” Owen explained. “When we get a hit, the location will pop up on that screen,” he said, pointing.

“Don’t worry, Alex. We’ll get the cube back. No muss, no fuss. By the way,” he said, his eyes on the screen projected in front of him. “What is Phase 2?”

Hopkins was distracted from answering by a loud noise behind him. He turned to see Captain Jack had set a large weapon down on a lab table.

“Phase 2 is TORCHWOOD using the Tesseract to make weapons,” Jack said. He nodded at Owen and the Doctor. “Sorry, the computers were a little slow for me.”

“Captain, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract from every Hydra base we came across. That does not mean—”

“Sorry, Alex,” the Doctor said, spinning the screen to face Hopkins. The image upon it was very obviously TORCHWOOD schematics for the weapon Captain Jack had found. “What were you lying?”

“I was wrong,” Jack said. “The world hasn’t changed a bit.”

“Did you know about this?” Owen asked Hannah as she, River and Boe entered the lab.

“Owen, I think you may want to consider removing yourself from this environment,” Hannah calmly replied.

“If you’ll remember, Agent, I was in Calcutta before you brought me here. I was as far removed as I could get.”

“I have reason to believe Gray is manipulating you,” Hannah said, stepping closer to Owen as River moved to stand with the Doctor.

“And what have you been doing?” Owen asked.

“Please. You didn’t come here just because I batted my eyelashes at you,” Hannah replied.

“You’re right. And I’m not leaving now just because you’re suddenly getting twitchy. I want to know why TORCHWOOD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

The room was silent for a moment, all eyes on Dr. Harper or Hopkins.

Hopkins sighed. “Because of him,” he said, pointing at Boe.

Boe, who had been watching the exchange with great interest, looked shock. “Wait, what? Me?”

“You. Last year, Earth got a visitor from another planet. You and your brother had a grudge match that leveled a small town. In one bright moment, not only did we learn that we are not alone, but we got sucker-punched with the fact that we are laughably outgunned,” Hopkins explained.

Boe looked gobsmacked. “My people want nothing but peace with your planet. I personally went to the Shadow Proclamation to advocate—”

“But your people aren’t the only ones out there. You aren’t the only threat, or need I remind you of the army Gray hopes to bring down on our heads?”

“Gray is—”

“Not the only threat. Our own world is filling up with people who can’t be matched and can’t be controlled,” he said, leveling his glare at the Doctor.

The Doctor made ‘who, me?’ motions at River, who just patted his arm and shook her head.

“Like you controlled the Tesseract?” Owen put in.

Boe snorted. “It was you poking around with the Tesseract that drew Gray and his allies to you. It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”

“Higher form?” Captain Jack asked.

“You forced our hand, Boe. We had to come up with—”

“Bigger guns? A nuclear deterrent? Because, historically, that has worked so well,” the Doctor said.

“Remind me again how Gallifrey made its money?”

Captain Jack snorted. “I’m sure if you still made weapons, you’d be neck deep in—”

“Careful,” River growled.

“Wait, how did this become my fault?” the Doctor said at the same time.

“I thought humans were more evolved than this,” Boe said sadly.

“Excuse me, did we come to your planet and proceed to blow shit up?” Hopkins asked.

Hannah rolled her eyes. “How could you possibly all be this naïve? TORCHWOOD monitors all threats. They knew—”

“Captain Jack is a threat?” Owen asked, incredulous.

“We’re all threats, Dr. Harper. Some of us more than others,” she said.

“Are you on that list?”

“I’m at the top.”

“I feel threatened!” the Doctor shouted as the room erupted into arguments.  
*****

Rhys glared at the screen in front of him. “Heavy flyer 229, I have your codes, but I don’t have you on the daily flight log,” he said into his headset. “What is your payload?”

“Arms and ammo,” came the reply.  
*****

“You talk about control, but have caused this chaos!” Boe said to Hopkins.

“It’s his MO, isn’t it?” Owen asked. “I mean, what are we supposed to be? A team. No, we’re a time bomb waiting for the absolute worst time to go off.”

“You need to take a step back, Dr. Harper,” Hopkins said.

“Oh, let him be, Alex. Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?” the Doctor said, absently clapping Captain Jack on the shoulder.

“You know damn well why. Splot ring a bell?” Captain Jack said. “Back. Off.”

The Doctor’s eyes darkened and River drew in a sharp breath. “Oh, Captain. I’m starting to want you to make me.”

Captain Jack snorted. “Funny man in a suit of armor. Take that away and what are you?”

The Doctor stared into his eyes for a long moment before he broke out into a huge grin. “Genius, billionaire, reformed playboy, philanthropist Oncoming Storm,” he said.

Hannah nodded and shrugged at the same time, the movement elegant and deadly. River smiled at her.

“I knew guys in the war who were worth ten of you. I’ve seen the footage of your adventures. You do what you think is right and damn the consequences. Damn the losses around you,” Captain Jack said.

“Now just a damn minute,” River said, stepping between the men.

“You may not be a bad guy, but you had better stop pretending to be some kind of hero, Oncoming Storm.”

The Doctor flinched and River barely kept herself from decking the soldier.

“A hero. You mean, like you? You’re a lab experiment, Captain. You are a weapon made to the specs of people reaching too far, too fast. Everything that is special about you came out of a bottle,” the Doctor said.

Boe laughed sharply. “You humans are so petty. And tiny. And prone to silly labels,” he said before the room erupted into loud argument. Again.  
*****

Hart fought against the movements of his own body, as he had been since the moment Gray’s scepter touched his chest. He kept fighting and fighting, and he kept losing. And every time he lost, he could feel Gray laughing in his mind. It was a cruel sound that stretched down through his body, turning his nerve ends to ice. He found himself gasping in his mind even as his body kept his breathing regular.

He was screaming in his mind as he thought this time. Gray had made him plan this with him. He was about to declare war on the only place that had been home for almost two decades. His friends were on that ship. His colleagues. His _family_.

He thought of all this as he watched his arrow attach to the _Valiant_. He tried again to gain control of his the finger that would trigger an explosion, and nearly wept inside as he felt himself losing. Again.  
*****

“This is a team. Sure,” Owen snorted.

Hopkins bit back a snarl. “Agent Fogg, would you please escort Dr. Harper to—”

“Where, Director? You rented my room out to Bag of Cats,” Owen interrupted.

Hannah snorted.

Hopkins held his hands up. “That cell was just in case—”

“Just in case you needed to kill me,” Owen finished. “But you can’t. I know; I’ve tried.”

Everyone stopped their conversations and stared at him. Captain Jack had an especially sorrowful look on his face. “Owen,” he said softly.

Owen looked away from him, not able to meet his eyes. “I got low. I didn’t see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth.” He lifted his head and met the group with a steely gaze. “And the Weevil spat it back out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people and keeping the anger at bay. I was good.” He turned and glared at Hannah. “Until you dragged me back into this circus and put everyone at risk. You want to know my secret, Agent? You want to know how I keep the Weevil locked away?” 

He took a step forward, pausing when he realized that everyone was on alert. Hopkins and Hannah had their hands on their weapons and Boe was fingering the hammer at his side. Captain Jack had his hand out in a beseeching gesture.

“Owen, put down the scepter. Please,” Jack said.

Owen looked down, shocked to see Gray’s scepter clutched in his own hand.

A loud beep broke the tense silence.

“Sorry, kids,” Owen said, putting the scepter back on the table. “You don’t get to see my neat trick today.”

The Doctor followed him over to the monitors. “You’ve located the Tesseract?”

“I can get there fastest,” the Doctor said, looking at the screen over Owen’s shoulder.

“The Tesseract belongs with the Shane. No human is a match for it,” Boe protested.

Captain Jack grabbed the Doctor’s arm. “You’re not going alone.”

“Oh? Are you going to stop me?”

“Put on the suit.”

“I’m not afraid to hit an old man, Captain. Especially one who is still my junior.”

Jack gave him a puzzled look. “Put. On. The. Suit.”

“Oh, my gods,” Owen said.

“What?” Hannah asked, joining him.

A loud explosion silenced Owen’s reply.  
*****

“Everyone all right?” Boe shouted.

“We’re fine,” River said as she and Hopkins gained their feet.

“Put on the suit?” the Doctor asked Jack.

“Yep,” Jack replied as he helped the Doctor up.

“I’m going to the bridge with Hopkins. You be careful, Sweetie,” River said, planting a kiss on her husband’s lips before pushing him out the door after Jack.

“Where’s Hannah?” Boe asked.

River looked down through the hole in the window. “She and Owen landed down there. See if you can get down there to help. I’ll send medical from the bridge!”

Boe nodded.

“So, about getting me a comm?” River asked Hopkins as they raced down the hall.

“All hands to stations,” Gwen shouted as Hopkins and River entered the bridge.

“Talk to me, Cooper!” Hopkins shouted.

“External detonation, sir. Rhys reports a Quinjet with proper codes but without a place on the roster landed. We’re sending a team out, but security footage shows a strike team has already debarked and has gained access through an exterior shaft,” she replied.

“Let me guess, the one Hart kept telling us was a liability?” Jones asked.

“The same,” Gwen replied, tightly.

“Engine 3 is down; the turbine is mostly intact, sir, but it is impossible to get out there to make repairs in the air,” Rhys said.

“We lose one more engine and we won’t be in the air,” Gwen added. “Someone has to get outside.”

“Doctor, did you get that?” Hopkins asked, knowing full well IDRIS was probably routing all communications to the Doctor.

“I copy,” the Doctor replied. “Cap and I are heading to Engine 3 as soon as I get my dance clothes on.”

“Jones, initiate defensive lockdown in the detention center and get to the armory,” Hopkins ordered.

Jones nodded, already running to comply before the order had been completed. 

“Con, get us heading south; we need to get over open water!” Hopkins shouted to his pilot.

“We’re flying blind, sir. The computers are recalibrating after the engine failure.”

Hopkins glared at him.

River huffed and moved to the con. “Is the sun coming up?”

“What?” the pilot asked.

She shoved him out of the way and took control of the _Valiant’_ s steering. “If the sun is coming up, then we put it on the left,” she said as she adjusted their heading.

Hopkins came up to stand beside her. 

“One more turbine goes down and we drop into the ocean,” she said.

“I’m aware.”  
*****

“Agent Fogg, report!”

Hannah coughed and gave the voice coming through her comm the bird before replying. “I’m okay.” She looked over at Owen, who was face down beside her and appeared to be trembling. “We’re okay, right?” she asked him.

Owen shook and groaned.

“Doctor? Owen, you’ve got to fight it. Letting Weevil out is just what Gray wants. Don’t give him that. You are going to be okay,” she said, trying to stay calm even as she fought to free her foot, which was trapped beneath a girder.

“Are you okay?”

Hannah snapped her head around to see two TORCHWOOD men moving toward them. She waved them off, and thanked the gods that TORCHWOOD hired people smart enough to realize that when a master assassin is waving you off, you back the fuck off.

“They’re gone, Owen. We’re going to be okay. You and me, Owen, we’re going to be fine. I swear on my _life_ that I will get you out of this. You can leave the _Valiant_ and you will never have to—”

“Your life?” Owen replied, and there was a dull roar in his voice that did not belong to the Doctor. He turned and glared at her, his eyes completely black and his skin going waxy pale.

“Shit,” Hannah said, then, with a last wrench, pulled her foot free. She gained her feet just as Owen leapt away, his mass rapidly increasing in midair. She almost fell as he landed, the impact of Weevil landing shaking the entire corridor. She paused to take in his appearance, fear and awe forcing her into stillness.

Weevil turned and stared at her, and she could seen menace in his gaze.

She took off running, swinging herself up onto a catwalk, trying to keep to places too small for him to follow.

The Weevil roared in frustration and gave chase.  
*****

Captain Jack helped the wounded past him and rushed for the area the Doctor had indicated. He stopped suddenly as the room ended and he could see through open air to the side of the engine. “Whoa.”

“Oh, good, you’re here,” the Doctor said as he arrived in his TARDIS to hover next to the engine. “Let’s see what we’ve got,” he said, using IDRIS to look at the damage. 

“Sir, you’ll need to get the superconducting cooling system back online before—”

“Before we can access the rotors and get the debris out. Yes, IDRIS, I see,” the Doctor finished.

“What can I do?” Jack asked.

“I need you to get to that panel and tell me which relays are in overload,” the Doctor replied, pointing without looking at him. He turned his attention to the readings IDRIS was pulling up on his heads up display.

“Of course you do,” Jack muttered, realizing he’d have to leap across wide open space to get to the panel. He took a step back and then leapt across, skittering to a halt right at the panel. “I’m here,” he said, pulling out the panel.

“Great. What’s it look like.”

_Really?_ “Well, it seems to run on some form of electricity.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

“Thanks.”

The Doctor grinned. “I’ll walk you through the process.”  
*****

Hannah slinked her way through the bowels of the _Valiant_ , trying to keep ahead of Weevil and keep him from accessing any of the more vital levels. She had her gun out in ready, just in case the Weevil wasn’t the only hostile she came across. She crouched down near a stairwell, her breathing silent from years of practice. 

The Weevil roared as he neared her, and she realized he was getting dangerously close to the exit. She jumped up, startling Weevil as she fired into the pipe above him, releasing hot steam into his face. Hannah took off running, hoping the Weevil would follow her without actually catching her.

“Shit!” she gasped as Weevil caught up with her and flung her into a wall. She let out a pained grunt as she sat up.

Weevil loomed over her, rage in his expression. He drew his fist back and for the first time in years, Hannah actually thought she was going to die. She closed her eyes, her last thought that she had failed Ianto and John.

She cracked an eye open as she heard an impact of great force and a loud grunt. She saw the Weevil crashing into a wall with Boe the impetus for the impact. She tucked her knees into her chest and tried to calm her breathing as she watched the fight through the hole in the wall.  
*****

Boe grunted as he landed in the hangar bay, rolling across metal and broken glass. He saw TORCHWOOD staff take a step toward him, then spot the Weevil and run like their asses were on fire. He couldn’t blame them.

Boe quickly gained his feet and caught Weevil’s large fist as it plummeted toward his head. “We are not your enemies, Owen! Try to think. Remember that we’re he—”

He was cut off by Weevil sweeping his other arm around and punching him in the chest, knocking him into a jet. He lifted his hand to his nose and grinned when it came away wet with blood. Finally, an opponent worth fighting.  
*****

“Okay, the relays are all intact. What’s our next move?” Captain Jack asked as he slid the panel closed.

“Well,” the Doctor said as he looked down into the rotors. “Even if we get the debris out of the rotors, the engine won’t re-engage without help.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I’m going to have to push.”

“What? If that thing gets up to full speed, you’ll get shredded.”

“Not necessarily. That standard control unit can reverse the polarity of the mag unit long enough to—”

“Speak English,” Jack interrupted.

“Captain, do you see the red lever?” River cut in through his comm.

“You mean back across the walkway that no longer exists?”

“That’s the one. It’ll slow the rotors long enough for the Doctor to get out.”

“Er, she’s right,” the Doctor said.

“Thank you, Sweetie. And do be quick about it,” River said.

“Okay, Cap, stand by the red lever and wait for my word.”

Jack sighed and leapt back across to the lever.  
*****

Boe chuckled as he flew through the air. He went limp just before hitting the wall of the hangar. He could hear the Weevil roaring, following his trajectory. He held out his hand, summoning his hammer to him. He waited, watching Weevil’s progress as the creature got closer to him. The hammer smacked into his hand moments before the Weevil reached him and Boe swung it with all his might, catching Weevil in the chest and sending him flying across the hangar.

Weevil shook his head as he got to his feet. He growled and ripped the wing off the nearest plane, throwing it at Boe. Boe slid on his knees, ducking underneath the wing. He threw his hammer at Weevil, hitting him in the stomach. Weevil roared in anger and tried to pick up the hammer from where it had landed. He got angrier and more frustrated as he failed to lift the hammer.

Boe laughed and grabbed the hammer, flipping himself up onto Weevil’s back and putting him in a chokehold with it.  
*****

“Agent Cooper! We need full evac on the lower hanger bay!” Rhys shouted.

Gwen whirled from where she stood with Hopkins and hurried over to his station. She was distracted by a metallic sound and looked down. “Grenade!” she shouted before throwing herself out of the way and on top of Rhys to protect him.

“What the fuck?” Hopkins shouted, staring through the smoke to see men dressed in TORCHWOOD tactical gear begin to pour into the bridge. He ducked around a corner and waited for two to get past him before grabbing the third and using him as a human shield as he shot the other two in the back. He took out three more in quick succession.

“Where are these assholes coming from?” he growled.

He was startled as he saw Gwen pointing a gun at him, but stood perfectly still as she fired. He heard the thunk of a body hitting the floor behind him. She nodded once at him before touching her comm.

“We’ve got a perimeter breach on the bridge. Hostiles are in TORCHWOOD tactical gear. Call outs required at every junction,” she shouted into the PA system.

“Gwen! Weevil and Boe are on research level four; research levels two and three are done!” Rhys shouted.

“Sir, Weevil will tear this place apart. Even if the Doctor gets the engine started, we’re done for,” Gwen said, ducking behind a consol as hostiles began firing into the bridge.

“Get his attention,” Hopkins said as he returned fire.

“Escort 4-2, this is Cooper. Proceed to the wishbone and engage the hostile. Don’t get too close to him!” she said into her comm.

“Copy that.”

Gwen watched on the screen as one of the jets took off and swung around to take aim at Weevil through the giant R&D window.

“Target acquired,” the pilot said through her comm. “Target engaged.”

Weevil roared as searing pain ripped into his back. He turned and saw the large metal flying thing that was causing his pain. He roared as he leapt through the air at it.

“Shit! Target is angry! Target is angry!” the pilot shouted as Weevil landed on the plane and started tearing it apart. He controlled the spin away from the _Valiant_ as best he could before engaging the emergency ejection system. He had a moment of abject terror as the Weevil caught him by his seat and shook him like a bad puppy for a few seconds before letting him go. His chute engaged moments later and he saw, as he fell in a controlled arc, his plane explode, Weevil roaring as he fell through the air in a far less-controlled arc.  
*****

“They are not getting through here, so why are they still firing?” Hopkins asked as he exchanged fire with the mercenaries.

He got his answer when movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He saw Hart aiming an arrow at the console behind him.

“Shit,” Hopkins breathed as the arrow flew. He watched it land in the console, probes popping out to hack into the system.

“Engine 1 is now offline!” Rhys shouted.

Hopkins swore as he watched Hart dash away as the _Valiant_ began to list dangerously. “It’s Hart! He took out our systems. He’s heading for the detention level. Does anyone copy?”

Hannah, her hand shaking as she tried to get on an even keel after her near-death experience at the hands of the Weevil, reached for her comm.

“This is Agent Summers-Fogg. I’ve got it,” she said, then ran for the detention level.  
*****

“Doctor! We’re in an uncontrolled descent!” Hopkins shouted into his comm.

“I’m aware,” the Doctor replied as he cleared the last of the debris. “Captain, be ready at that lever. I’m going in,” he said as he leapt into the rotors and fired up the TARDIS’ repulsors.

“I’m trying,” Captain Jack said as he batted away another grenade lobbed at him by the mercenaries. He leapt up onto a catwalk and then dropped down on one of the mercenaries, taking his gun and using it on the man’s compatriots. He shouted as a shot landed close, causing him to jump as sparks flew out of a panel. He found himself falling and grabbed a long piece of cabling seconds before he was lost to open air.

“All hands to crash positions immediately!” blared through the PA system.

“Doctor, we are up to speed. I advise getting your arse out of there,” IDRIS said.

“Sounds like a plan, sexy. Cap, use the lever!”

“Need a minute,” Jack gasped as he pulled himself back up into the _Valiant._

“Now. Now, now, now, now, now, now!”

“Almost there!”

“Well, bugger,” the Doctor gasped as the rotors outpaced him and he got trapped beneath them, getting banged about in his armor.

With a last pull, Captain Jack gained the lever and pulled it, allowing the Doctor to drop out of the engine.

“Better,” the Doctor said as he gained control and flew up to check on Jack. He saw a mercenary taking aim at the soldier and flew toward him, knocking him out. He rolled off the unconscious man and stared at the ceiling.

“How are the others faring?” Captain Jack gasped from his prone position on the catwalk.

“IDRIS, patch the good captain into everything.”

“Yes, sir.”  
*****

As soon as Weevil had leapt out of the _Valiant_ , Boe took off running for the detention level. Now that the immediate threat (being torn apart in midair) had passed, he needed to make sure that Gray did not escape. He paused at the lab and grimaced when he realized Gray’s men had collected his scepter for him. He ran faster and reached the cage just as the door swung open and Gray started to step out.

“No!” Boe shouted, running for his brother. He saw Gray brace for impact, and then disappear just was Boe would have crashed into him. “What?” he said as he turned in the cage, watching the door slide closed.

“Are you ever _not_ going to fall for that?” Gray asked.

Boe growled and hit the wall of his cage with the hammer. He stilled his hand before a second blow fell as the cage shook beneath him.

“Oh, yes. Remember Hopkins’ warning?” Gray said as he moved to the controls. The deck opened beneath the cage. “These humans think us immortal.” He grinned at his brother. “Shall we test that?”

Gray’s attention was pulled from his brother as a pained grunt sounded. He turned to see one of his mercenaries crumpled on the ground, Ianto Jones standing over him with an impressive bit of weaponry in his hands.

“Move away from the controls, please,” Ianto said calmly.

Gray held his hands up, but did not move away.

“Do you like this?” Ianto asked, gesturing with the gun. “We started reverse engineering the prototype after you sent the destroyer. Even I don’t know what it does.” He pressed a button on the side and the weapon hummed to life, an orange glow emitting from the muzzle. “Would you like to find out?” 

Ianto gasped as a searing pain cut through his back. He looked down and saw the tip of Gray’s scepter protruding from his chest.

“NOOO!!” Boe screamed from inside the cage, dropping his hammer to pound on the glass with his bare fists.

Gray shrugged as he withdrew his scepter, letting Ianto crumple to the ground. “Do hold that image close as you fall, brother,” he said, then hit the button to release the cage into thin air.

Boe barely felt the hot, scalding tears on his face as he hammered away at the glass cage. He had to get out; he had to live and make Gray pay for what he’d done.

He almost laughed with joy as he freed himself midair and plummeted to the ground.  
*****

Hart was making his way back up to the deck. One of the mercenaries had reported Gray was free just before he went radio silent. He knew he was no longer needed in the bowels of the _Valiant_ ; he needed to get to a Quinjet so he could effect their escape.

He whirled, arrow nocked and drawn, and fired at the person following him. He managed to gain enough control over his body to pull his aim when he saw it was Hannah behind him. It felt odd, to be rooting for her to hit him again and again as they fought across the catwalk. They had always been evenly matched when they sparred, but Hart had always thought she was holding back. Now, as she ducked out of his way and slid around him and landed blows, he knew she had been right.

Hannah grinned inside as she realized Hart had missed her twice before she got his bow off him. Hart was the world’s greatest marksman; he never missed. So if she was still fighting without an arrow buried in her person, he was able to fight against whatever Gray had done to him. She had suspected that when she saw the footage from the research facility; he could have easily taken both Hopkins and Cooper out with headshots, but he hadn’t.

She flipped up over his back and rolled away from him, pulling out her knife. She grinned as he followed suit; Hart had never been able to beat her with blades. The only person to have ever come close was Ianto. Hart lunged at her and she had to abandon her knife unless she actually wanted to cause permanent damage to him. Their arms were tangled up as they fought, and Hannah leaned forward and bit down on Hart’s wrist—hard—causing him to drop his own blade. As he shouted in pain, she head butted him, sending him to his knees. She pressed her advantage and landed a roundhouse to his head. He fell to the side, striking his head hard against the metal railing of the catwalk. 

Hart looked up at her, dazed. “Banana?” he said softly, using his pet name for her.

Unwilling to take the chance that Gray was using Hart’s memories against her, she punched him in the face, knocking him out.

“I need security on catwalk 13. I have Hart down,” she said, pressing her comm.  
*****

“You’re going to lose.”

Gray paused in his exit from the detention level. “Am I?” he asked, turning to face the mortally wounded TORCHWOOD operative.

Ianto nodded once, wincing with the movement. “It’s in your nature.”

“Your heroes are scattered and your floating fortress is falling from the sky. Where, exactly, does my disadvantage lie?”

“You lack conviction. They have something to fight for now. A common goal.”

“I don’t think—”

Gray was cut off by the energy blast hitting him squarely in the chest and knocking him through two walls.

“So that’s what it does,” Ianto said as he heard Gray groan in pain.

Gray stood and threw one last glare at Ianto. “It’s a pity you won’t be around to see my victory,” he snarled before running off.

“Blowhard,” Ianto said softly.

“Jones!”

Ianto turned his head, smiling weakly as Hopkins crouched in front of him.

“Sorry, Boss. The godchild rabbited on me,” Ianto gasped.

“We’ll get him. Keep your eyes on me.”

Ianto tried to shake his head, the movement more resembling a slight roll of his head on his neck. “I’m clocking out here, sir.”

“That is not an option. Permission denied, soldier. We’ll have you on your feet in no time.”

“It’s okay, Boss. This was never going to work if they didn’t have something to…to…”

“Ianto!” Hopkins shouted as his second closed his eyes.  
*****

“Agent Jones is down.”

Captain Jack bobbled as he helped the Doctor to his feet. The TARDIS’ faceplate was up, so he could see how the news affected the Doctor as well.

Hannah gasped from her place behind the security detail carrying Hart to the secure infirmary.

“Medical is on its way to you,” River said through the comm. She was on the bridge, Gwen’s hand clutched fiercely in her own.

“They’re here. They called it,” Hopkins replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am _so_ sorry about that. I am working on finishing my epilogue (read: figuring out how porny to make it) to fix it. And for the record? I decided to bring him back before Joss did. So there!
> 
> Also, forgot to mention that Darwicatnium is, of course, completely made up. It's named for my cat, who gave up much lap time while I worked on this.


	6. Part V--Out of Gas

**Part V—Out of Gas**  
The Doctor and Captain Jack sat at the conference table on the bridge. The Doctor tried hard not to remember the last time they had sat here, only hours ago. He and Owen and River had been rumbling along and Ianto had been alive and well, accepting his teasing with his usual good nature. He watched as River ran around the bridge, helping to get systems back on line as much as she was able. His line of sight on her was blocked by Hopkins, who stepped to the table and flung what looked like squares of thin cardboard onto the table.

“Those were in his jacket.”

Jack reached out and flipped over one of the cards, gasping when he recognized his own face through the blood.

“I guess he never got the chance to have you sign them,” Hopkins said.

Jack clenched his fist beneath the table as he heard the Doctor’s sharp intake of breath.

“We are dead in the air, gentlemen,” Hopkins stated. “We have no communications and, thanks to the destruction in the lab, no line on the Tesseract. We’ve lost both Gray and Dr. Harper.” He sighed. “And I’ve lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming.”

The Doctor snorted sadly.

“Yes. We were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract.”

The Doctor growled.

“But I never put all my eggs in that basket, per Jones’ warning. We were playing something riskier. The Doctor knows about this. We called it the Excalibur Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something _more_. To see if they would work together when we needed them to fight the battles the rest of humanity never could. Ianto Jones died still believing in that idea.”

The Doctor shoved himself out of his chair and left the bridge.

“Well, it was an old-fashioned notion,” Hopkins said.

Captain Jack felt his heart clench at Hopkins’ word choice. He choked back a sob as he followed the Doctor out.  
*****

Boe walked listlessly through the field, feeling the song of his hammer running through his veins, drawing him nearer. He found the hammer in a copse of flowers, blue as Ianto’s eyes. He choked on a sob. He dropped his hand before he touched the hammer. Was he still worthy of it? He had lost the right to yield it once before. And now he had failed Ianto—failed the man he loved. How could he still be worthy of the power and privilege of wielding his hammer.

But if he took the hammer and wielded it once again, in Ianto’s name, he could stop Gray and prevent anyone else from feeling his grief. He wrapped his hand around the handle and felt it respond to his touch.

_Your name is Cariad, now_ , he told the hammer in his thoughts. _For Ianto._  
*****

“You fell out of the sky.”

Owen shook his head as he came awake. “What?” he muttered. He looked around and found himself in the middle of a pile of debris. He did a quick internal check and was extremely grateful no debris was anywhere…inconvenient.

“I said, you fell out of the sky.”

Owen looked up to see an old man in a security uniform standing at the edge of the crater his fall had created. “Did I hurt anyone?”

The man laughed. “There’s no one around to get hurt. You did scare the bloody blue blazes out of some pigeons.”

Owen groaned as he sat up. “I was lucky, then.”

“Or you just have good aim.”

“What?” Owen asked, then cringed at how stupid he must sound, saying ‘what?’ every three seconds.

“You were awake when you fell.”

“You saw me?”

“The whole thing. You fell right through the ceiling. Big and pasty and buck-ass nekkid. Here,” he said, tossing a pile of clothes down to him. “Didn’t think those would fit you until you shrunk down to normal person size.”

“Thank you,” Owen said, pulling on the clothes.

“Are you an alien?”

“Am I what?”

“An alien. You know, from outer space?”

Owen huffed out a laugh. “No. Not an alien.”

“Well, then, son, you’ve got a condition.”

Owen laughed out loud. “Oh, you have no idea.”  
*****

Hart could still hear Gray laughing in his head as the world spun around him, lights flashing and colors off-key.

“John, you’re going to be all right.”

He turned his head and saw Hannah sitting at his side, the white of her catsuit blazing. He spent a moment wondering how she had gone head-to-head with him without getting a spot of dirt or blood on her.

“You’re going to be all right,” she repeated, squeezing his hand.

“You know that?” he asked, then laughed. “Is that what you know?”

“It is,” she said. She stood to pour him some water.

“I have to flush him out,” he said, pulling at the restraints on his wrists.

“It’s going to take time,” she said, holding the cup to his lips for him to drink.

“Have you ever had someone take your brain out and play? Pull you out and stuff something else inside. Do you know what it’s like to be unmade?”

She sat on the edge of his bed and undid his restraints. “You know that I do.”

He winced. He was one of the few people who knew what she had gone through after being kidnapped as a baby and turned into a human weapon. “How did I get back?”

“Cognitive recalibration.”

Hart lifted an eyebrow.

She sat down next to him. “I hit you _really_ hard in the head. _Twice_!” she explained, grinning brightly.

Hart huffed out a laugh. “You are not right.”

“And that’s reason 3,076 why you love me.”

“Really? I thought it would be higher.”

“Fuck off.”

Hart sobered. “How many did I—”

“ _No_. We are not doing that. Because then I have to bring up Antwerp and then you bring up Hong Kong and, before you know it, we’re back on murder rehab.”

Hart snorted. “I still can’t believe Cooper wanted to institute that.”

“Well, she’s never been overly fond of us.”

“And even less so now. Hannah, where is Gray?”

Her expressed hardened. “He got away. I don’t suppose you know to where?”

Hart shook his head and rubbed his wrists. “I didn’t need to know, so I didn’t ask. But he’s going to make his play soon. Today, even.”

“We’ve got to stop him,” she said, pacing the small room.

“Oh yeah? Who’s ‘we’?”

“I don’t know! Whoever is left. Come on, John.”

“Well, putting an arrow or seven into his arse would make me sleep better.”

She laughed and sat beside him, nudging his shoulder with her own. “Now you sound like you.”

“But you don’t. You’re a spy, not a soldier. And now you want to go wading into war. Why? What did Gray do to you?”

She stiffened. “He didn’t—. He killed Ianto. I’ve been compromised by his actions.” She shook her head and met his eyes. “I have red in my ledger. I’m going to wipe it out. For Ianto.”  
*****

The Doctor stood in the detention block, staring at the blood stain on the wall. He felt more than heard Captain Jack join him.

“Was he married?” Jack asked.

The Doctor shook his head. “No. There was someone. Ianto said he was from out of the country and had to go back—bugger.”

“What?”

“Boe. He was in love with Boe. It all makes sense; I should have seen it earlier.”

“I’m sorry. Ianto seemed like a good guy.”

“He was an idiot,” the Doctor said, sharply.

Jack was taken aback. “Why, because he believed in us?”

“Because he went up against Gray alone.”

“He was doing his job.”

“He was out of his league. _Way_ out of his league. He should have waited.”

“Doctor, sometimes there just isn’t a way out.”

“Right,” the Doctor said harshly before pushing past him.

“Is this the first time you’ve lost a soldier?”

“We are not soldiers!” the Doctor shouted, advancing on him. “And I am not marching to Hopkins’ tune.”

Captain Jack spread his hands. “Neither am I. He has as much blood on his hands as Gray does. But right now we have to set that aside and get this job done. You and Owen said that Gray would need a power source. He’ll—”

“He made it personal,” the Doctor interrupted, staring at the blood stain.

Jack gave him a puzzled look. “That’s not the point.”

“No, that is the point. That’s Gray’s point. He hit us where we live. But why?”

“To tear us apart?”

“Divide and conquer is all well and good, but he knows he has to take us out to succeed. He has to beat us. And he wants to be seen doing it. Gray craves an audience.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, I caught his show in Stuttgart.”

The Doctor waved a hand. “That was just the previews. This is opening night and Gray has full tilt diva written all over him. He wants flowers, parades. He wants a monument built to the sky with his name plaster—” He cut himself off, a dazed look in his eyes.

“And the penny drops,” River said through the comm.

“Son of a bitch,” the Doctor said, then took off running for the TARDIS. He had work to do.  
*****

“Time to go.”

Hannah looked up to see Captain Jack standing in the doorway, his battle gear on, including the cowl.

“Go where?” she asked.

“I’ll tell you on the way. Can you fly the Quinjets?”

“I can,” Hart said, appearing in the doorway from the head.

Jack shot a quick look to Hannah, who nodded subtly.

“Do you have a suit?”

“Yeah.”

“Then suit up.”

After a brief stop at Hart’s quarters for his tactical suit and back up bow, Hart, Hannah and Captain Jack headed for the hangar. They ignored the stairs they got from the agents passing them by. Everyone stared, but no one dared challenge the trio who looked ready to rain down death. 

They stepped up onto the open ramp of a Quinjet. A young man in a pilot’s uniform stood up. “Um, you guys aren’t authorized to—”

Jack held up a gloved hand. “Son, just don’t.”

The young man took in the steely gazes of the trio and got out of the Quinjet as quick as humanly possible.  
*****

Gwen carefully approached Director Hopkins, who was idly flipping through Ianto’s ruined cards. River Song was still at the con, keeping _Valiant_ on her heading. 

“Sir?”

“Agent Cooper.”

“Those cards…”

“Yes?”

“They were in Agent Jones’ locker; not his jacket.”

“They needed a push,” he said.

River gave a small shout as the TARDIS streaked past the front screen, a Quinjet close on her heels.

“Sir, we have unauthorized departures!” Rhys called out.

Hopkins smiled. “Get our communications back up; whatever you have to do. I want eyes on the Doctor and his team.”

“We should have someone tracking Boe,” River said.

“He’s a god, I’m sure he can take care of himself,” Hopkins dismissed.

“Yes. He’s a god. A god who just watched, helpless, as his brother murdered someone who was very important to him. Tell me, sir, if it were you, would you rejoin the people who let that trap be sprung, or would you go hell-bent for revenge on your own? With the powers of a god.”

“Someone get eyes on Boe!” Hopkins shouted.  
*****

The Doctor swore in Latin as the TARDIS pitched and yawed in her flight back to London. “A little help, IDRIS.”

“Sir, I am doing the best I can, but you are pushing the damaged suit past its capabilities. You’re lucky you can maneuver at all.”

“Always a ray of sunshine, IDRIS,” he said as he hovered over the roof of the tower. He could see Dr. Sato working on a large piece of machinery, the Tesseract at its core.

“Sir, I’ve turned off the arc reactor, but the device is already self-sustaining,” IDRIS informed him.

“Shut it down, Tosh,” the Doctor said.

Tosh looked up at him, haggard from too much work and not enough sleep. “You’re too late! There’s no stopping her now. She wants to show us something, Doctor. A new universe!”

“Ooo-kay,” the Doctor said. He fired his repulsors at the machine and was blasted back as they encountered a force field. As he righted himself in the air, he saw that Tosh had been flung from the machine and was curled up, unconscious, next to the wall.

“That barrier is pure energy, Doctor. Unbreachable.”

“Yeah, I got that.” He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see Gray smiling up at him from the balcony. “Plan B, then.”

“Um, Doctor, the Mark VII armor is not ready for deployment.”

“Skip the sound system, IDRIS; we’re on a clock,” he said as he landed and allowed his armor to be stripped. He kept his gaze locked with Gray’s as he went inside.

“ _Please_ tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity. That’s always so much fun,” Gray said as he spun his scepter in his hands.

“I was actually planning to threaten you,” the Doctor replied as he jogged down the stairs to the same level as Gray.

Gray smirked. “You should have left your armor on for that.”

The Doctor waved his hand. “Yeah, but it’s seen some mileage today and you have the Glowstick of Destiny there, so…drink?”

“Stalling me won’t change anything.”

“No, no, threatening, remember? No drink? Are you sure? I’m having one,” he said as he poured himself some juice cleverly disguised in a brandy decanter.

“The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. So what do you have to threaten me with? What have I to fear?”

“Excalibur.”

Gray lifted an eyebrow.

The Doctor shrugged. “It’s what we call ourselves. Like a team; Earth’s mightiest heroes and all that.”

“Oh, yes. I’ve met them.”

“Yeah,” he said, stretching the word out. “It takes us a while to get some traction, I’ll give you that. But, for the fun of it, let’s do a head count. We have your brother, the demigod.”

Gray hissed.

While Gray was distracted, the Doctor slipped on his new bracelets, the homing device for the Mark VII. “A super soldier—a living legend who actually lives up to the legend. A man with staggering anger management issues and the assassin twins. And you, you naughty monkey, you have managed to piss off every. Single. One of them.”

“That was the plan.”

“As plans go, not so great. When they come—and they will—they’ll come for you.”

“I have an army.”

“We have a Hannah.”

Gray flinched, her outwitting of him fresh.

“And a Weevil.”

Gray grinned. “Oh? I thought your pet beast had wandered off.”

The Doctor slammed down his glass. “You don’t get it. Listen, there is no throne. No version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army does come and maybe it’s too much for us. But if we can’t protect this planet, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it.”

Gray advanced on him and picked him up by the throat. “Not so dangerous without your armor,” he snarled before flinging the Doctor across the room.

“IDRIS, any time now.”

“You will all fall before me,” Gray said, picking the Doctor up again.

“Deploy, IDRIS!” the Doctor gasped. “Deploy!”

Gray laughed and threw him out the window.

“Deploy!”

Gray heard a whirring behind him and turned in time to be knocked over by a flying pod of blue metal.

The Doctor held his hands out and smiled when he saw the TARDIS’ blue tracers lacing over his arms, locking on the bracelets on his wrists. Moments later, he was encased in the TARDIS armor and blasting his way back up to the balcony.

“And there’s one other person you managed to astoundingly piss off,” he said, taking aim at Gray. “His name was _Ianto_.” He fired his repulsors at Gray’s chest, sending the demigod flying back into the wall.

“Doctor!”

He looked up at the sound of Toshiko’s shout and flew up to the roof. The device had turned on, shooting a blue stream of energy to a point up in the sky. As he stared, he saw a wormhole open up and spit out aliens on gliders.

“Right. Army,” he said, then flew up to meet them, weapons blazing.


	7. Part VI--That Old Gang of Mine

**Part VI—That Old Gang of Mine**  
Gray walked to the edge of the balcony, determined not to limp even though he was in pain from the Doctor’s weapons. He stared down into the city, smiling as people jumped out of cars and ran for cover from his marauding Chitauri.

“Gray!”

He turned to see that Boe had landed beneath him.

“Turn it off or I’ll destroy it,” Boe said, pointing to the roof.

“You can’t. There is no stopping it now, brother. There is only the war.”

Boe nodded. “So be it.”

Gray leapt down at him and they engaged in battle yet again.  
*****

“Doctor, we’re on your three headed northeast,” Hannah said into her comm.

“Did you stop for lunch? Never mind, no excuses. Keep heading northeast, I’m going to lay them out for you,” the Doctor replied.

“Copy that.” She grinned at Hart as she activated the Quinjet’s weapons systems.

“You get far too much joy out of that big gun,” Hart said to her.

“Copy that. Hold on, Cap, we’re going in!” she called out to their passenger.

Later, Hannah would swear up and down that she absolutely _did not_ shout, “Yippee kai-aye motherfuckers!” into her comm as she fired into the column of Chitauri soldiers.

Hart managed to pull them up at the last minute, laughing as some of their pursuers smashed into the building. He stopped laughing as they came level with the balcony of Gallifrey tower (which had lost all its letters except the brightly glowing ‘E’). 

“Han,” he said. “I see him.”

Hannah looked over to see Gray fighting with Boe. “So do I.” She aimed the Quinjet’s guns at Gray and fired.

Gray gasped more in shock than in pain, his eyes narrowing when he saw who was assaulting him. He fired the scepter at the Quinjet, snarling when Hart was able to maneuver enough that the blast caught the wing instead of the cockpit. He aimed for another shot, but was thrown to the floor as Boe tackled him.

“Hold on, Cap!” Hannah shouted as Hart fought valiantly to control their fiery descent. They came to a crashing halt at in front of Gallifrey tower.

“Worst. Landing. Ever,” Hannah said as she touched her forehead. Her fingers came away wet with blood.

“No, I think Sao Paolo still wins that one,” Hart said as he unstrapped himself from his seat.

“Better than my last landing,” Captain Jack said as he lowered the ramp.

“Point,” Hannah said. 

They hurried out onto the street and looked up at the wormhole.

“We’ve got to get back up there!” Hart said.

“How? None of us have wings!”

“And we’ve got enough targets down here,” Jack added, nodding to where the Chitauri were sweeping low to fire at people trying to escape on foot.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Hannah shouted.

They all looked up at the wormhole, through which a large creature that could only be called a space whale was emerging with more gliders.

“Doctor, are you seeing this?” Jack asked into his comm.

“Um, seeing, yes. I’m still working on the believing part. Speaking of, has Dr. Harper shown up yet?”

“Owen?” Jack asked, confused.

“Keep me posted.”

Hannah checked her ammunition before moving toward the fighting. “I’m locked,” Hannah said. “Let’s go kill some chimichangas.”

“Chitauri!” Jack corrected.

“Them, too.”

The Doctor laughed as he listened to their chatter. “Good luck, kids. IDRIS, find me a soft spot,” he said, scanning the space whale.  
*****

“Look at this! Look around you!” Boe shouted, forcing Gray to look down into the destruction he had wrought.

Gray smiled as the city burned.

“You think this madness will end with your rule? You’ll always be their puppet!”

“It’s too late to stop it.”

“No, it isn’t.” Boe turned his brother so his hands were on his shoulders and they stared into each other’s eyes. “Together, we can end this.”

Gray smiled and stabbed his brother in the side. “Sentiment,” he snarled.

Boe, seeing the last vestiges of his brother’s sanity losing hold, punched his brother. He then picked him up and threw him to the floor. Gray lost his grip on his scepter as he rolled.

“Gray!” Boe shouted as his brother rolled off the edge. He looked down and saw that Gray had landed on a glider and took off into the battle. With a grunt, he pulled his brother’s blade free and rested his head on the cold concrete of the balcony, collecting his breath.  
*****

Hannah, Hart and Jack took cover behind an overturned cab.

“We’ve got civilians trapped down there,” Hannah said, pointing below them.

“Gray,” Hart breathed as the Shane flew over them, firing into the crowd.

“They’re fish in a barrel down there,” Jack said. He ducked as Chitauri neared their position, firing at them.

Hannah and Hart exchanged a look as Hart ran to begin returning fire.

“We’ve got this, Cap. It’s good. You go save those people,” Hannah said.

“Hart, can you hold them off?” Jack asked.

“Captain,” he said, smiling for the first time in days, “it would be my genuine pleasure.” He turned away from them and began firing arrows at the Chitauri.

Jack nodded and leapt from their position, landing on the top of a bus and leaping off again.

“Bus!” Hannah shouted to Hart.

Hart nodded and ran to a disabled bus, knocking out windows and pulling people to safety as Hannah laid down suppressing fire. Once the civilians were safely tucked away, Hart rejoined Hannah and began picking off Chitauri.

“This is just like Budapest all over again,” Hannah said as she dropped her mags and reloaded.

“You and I remember Budapest very differently.”

“My way’s better,” she replied.  
*****

PC Andy Davidson ran over to his commander, Kathy Swanson. “They say it’ll be an hour before reinforcements get here.”

“An hour? Does the army know what’s going on here?” she asked.

“Do we?”

They both jumped as a man landed on the bonnet of their car. Andy goggled as he realized the man was dressed just like Captain Jack, from the old serials. “The hell?”

“You need men in those buildings,” Captain Jack said. “There are people inside who are running right into the line of fire. You take them to basements or into shelters or tube stations. I don’t care which; just keep them off the streets. I then need a perimeter three blocks down.”

“And why the hell should I take orders from you?” Kathy asked. She ducked as an explosion went off behind the captain. He turned and took out two of the—well, they could only be aliens, could they?—with his shield and his fists.

The captain met her eyes before running off into the fray.

“Right. I need men inside these buildings. Get people under cover and/or into the tube. I want a perimeter three blocks down and if the man dressed like Captain Jack Harkness asks for anything, you bloody well give it to him!” Kathy shouted into her radio.  
*****

The Doctor stalked the space whale, then swung around and headed right for it, shooting flares at its head. The space whale roared and turned to chase him.

“Great, I got its attention. What was step two?”

“You hadn’t gotten that far, Doctor,” IDRIS replied.

“Isn’t that why I have you?” he asked as he flew away, the space whale giving chase.  
*****

Hannah laughed with joy as she took out more and more Chitauri. She had managed to get her hands on one of their energy staffs and was gleefully taking them out with their own weapons. She kept track of Hart’s progress as he leapt from perch to perch, often sliding in a daring fashion as he took out Chitauri with his arrows. They ended up back to back fighting and Hannah ducked instinctively as a shadow fell over them. She turned to fire, only to find it unnecessary as Captain Jack leapt into the fray and took out the Chitauri.

“Miss me?” Jack asked.

“Ever so much,” she replied.

“Guys,” Hart said, nodding at the dozen Chitauri heading their way.

Hannah dropped the staff and lifted her own guns to fire. Before she could get a good bead, lightning came down, frying them where they stood. Boe landed a few seconds later, looking winded. Hannah grew concerned; word was the only time Boe had been made weak was when he was human. And there had been a taser modified by Dr. Sato involved that time.

“What’s the story upstairs?” Jack asked as the trio made their way to Boe.

“The power surrounding the Tesseract is impenetrable,” Boe reported.

“He’s right. We’ve got to deal with these guys,” the Doctor said through their comms.

“So how do we do this?” Hannah asked.

“As a team,” Jack replied.

“I have unfinished business with Gray,” Boe said.

“Yeah? Get in line,” Hart said as he checked his arrows.

“Save it,” Jack snapped.

Hart rolled his eyes, but followed the order.

“Gray is going to want to keep the fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him controlling them, those things will run wild. We’ve got the Doctor up top and—”

“Well, holy crap,” Hannah interrupted.

Captain Jack turned to see Owen riding up to them on a dilapidated motorbike. He tried to keep the relief off his face, but gave the other man a smile.

Owen dismounted and walked over to them. “Well, this all seems…horrible.”

“I’ve seen worse,” Hannah said.

Owen looked sheepish. “Sorry about that.”

Hannah shook her head. “No, I think we could really use a little worse right now.”

“Doctor, we’ve got Owen. Just like you said,” Jack said into his comm.

“Well, tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you,” the Doctor replied.

“And it’s not even my birthday!” Hannah replied, excited.

“Surprise!” he shouted as he turned the corner, the large space whale hot on his heels.

“Oh, your gifts _suck_ , Doc! Shoes! Always go with shoes!”

“Noted.”

Owen began to walk toward where the space whale was coming in low.

“Um, Owen, now might be a really good time to get angry,” Jack called after him.

Owen turned to look at him and smiled sadly. “That’s my secret, Cap. I’m always angry.”

As he turned back to the space whale, he shifted into the Weevil as he walked toward it. He stopped and planted his fist squarely in the middle of the things face. The space whale groaned as it was shoved into the ground, its tale swinging up in the air to come down and land on the assembled teammates.

“Heads up!” the Doctor shouted as he fired at the space whale. Its back end exploded in fire, but did not land on them. Jack grabbed Hannah and protected both of them with his shield.

They stood up as the space whale finally died. From above, they could hear the screams of the Chitauri.

“Is that just anger?” Hannah asked.

“Hive mind,” the Doctor said. “We can use that. Call it, Captain,” he said as they all stood in a circle, their backs to each other. Hart already had another arrow nocked and Hannah reloaded her guns.

“Okay, listen up. Until we can close that portal, we’re on containment duty. Hart, I want you up on that roof. I want your eyes on everything, calling out patterns and stays. Doctor, you’ve got the perimeter. If anything gets three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash,” Jack said.

“Want to give me a lift?” Hart asked the Doctor.

“Sure. Better clench up, Legolas.”

“Hey, I—whoa!” Hart shouted as the Doctor grabbed him by his tactical harness and took off. He dropped Hart on the roof before taking off to engage more Chitauri.

“Boe, you need to bottleneck that portal. You’ve got the lightning; use it,” Jack said.

Boe nodded and took off, heading for the tallest, most phallic-looking building he could find. For conduction purposes, of course.

Jack looked at Hannah. “You and I are going to stay here on the ground and keep the fighting here. And Weevil?”

Weevil turned, his black eyes bright with excitement.

“Smash.”

Weevil roared with joy before leaping to the air. He cleaved to the side of a building and started throwing Chitauri off of it. When he got bored with that, he leapt to another building and started using them as slingshots.

“Cap, you just made his year,” Hannah said, watching the carnage.

“Oh, I hope so.”  
*****

“Sir? The Alpha Directive is on the line,” Gwen said.

“Figures. I get my communications up and those morons are my first call.”

“They did give you this command.”

“That doesn’t make him wrong in his assessment,” River said.  
*****

Boe called down the lightning, using it to zap the next wave coming out of the wormhole, including two of the space whales. It also seemed to shrink the wormhole a bit. So that was something, then.  
*****

“Doctor, you’ve god some strays sniffing your tale,” Hart reported without breaking the rhythm of his firing.

“I’m aware. I’m trying to keep them off the streets,” the Doctor replied, zooming by in a streak of blue and silver.

“Well, they can’t bank for shite, so find a tight corner and go to town.”

The Doctor did as he said, ducking underneath billboards and into parking structures. He laughed as the Chitauri were unable to follow his turns and crashed in spectacular explosions.

“Thanks for the tip, Hawkeye. You got anything else?”

“Well, Boe’s taking on a squadron two blocks east of you.”

“And he didn’t invite me. Bloody alien manners.”

“Oh, and look out for Weevil.”

“What?”

“Duck!”

The Doctor dropped down two stories, just in time for Weevil to come bursting through the windows of an office building, catching a just approaching space whale by the jaws. The Doctor watched as Weevil climbed on top of the space whale and started knocking off Chitauri before he turned to go help Boe.  
*****

Hannah used her Queen’s Consort wrist weapons—nifty things TORCHWOOD had given her; they behaved like a taser on steroids, going right for the nerves. Apparently, even Chitauri had nerves. She laid out another two with the weapon before taking up another Chitauri energy staff. She spun and fired, her deadly grace turning into a dance more than warfare. She turned, the staff at her shoulder, ready to fire, then tossed it down when she saw it was Captain Jack behind her. Realizing they had a moment of peace, she leaned back against a cab and looked up.

“Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don’t get that portal closed.”

“Our biggest guns couldn’t touch it,” he said, leaning beside her.

“Maybe it’s not about guns,” she said, checking the knives she kept up her sleeves.

Jack heard roaring and looked to see another squadron of Chitauri heading for them. “If you want to get up there, you’re going to need a ride.”

She looked up, tracing the patterns of the gliders. “I’ve got a ride. I could use a boost though.”

Jack followed her gaze and worked out her plan. He crossed the street and held up his shield. “Are you sure about this?”

“Oh yeah, sure. It’ll be fun.” She ran toward him and leapt up onto the shield, using her momentum and his muscles to fling herself into the air, catching the back of one of the gliders.

Once he saw she was onboard, Jack turned back to fight the Chitauri.

“Wow, this was a spectacularly bad idea,” Hannah said as she climbed up onto the glider. She quickly cut the chain holding one of the Chitauri to the glider and kicked him off. Once she had her balance, she leapt onto the pilot, digging her knives into his back to steer through him.

“Turn. Turn! Turn! Turn!” she shouted as she tried to get the hang of it.

The Doctor flew by her, picking off some of her pursuers before landing beside the captain. They utilized Jack’s shield and his repulsors to dust off a few Chitauri before the Doctor took to the air again. He flew past Weevil on the space whale and saluted.

Weevil roared at the blue metal man as he flew by. But he knew the metal man was a friend, so he didn’t throw one of the aliens after him. Boe, the mean man from the flying ship, landed beside him and started killing Chitauri. He pulled a sharp piece of armor off of the space whale and shoved it into the thing’s neck. Boe swung his hammer up, calling the lightning, then drove the armor completely through the whale. Weevil roared as they rode the space whale’s death throes down to the ground. He panted heavily, looking around to be sure that the Chitauri were gone.

Then he punched Boe.  
*****

“Captain, the bank on your northeast corner has civilians cornered inside by about half a dozen Chitauri,” Hart called through the comm.

“On it.” 

He ran for the bank, leaping up to enter through a broken-out second story window. He saw four Chitauri as soon as he entered, and easily two dozen civilians cowering below. He quickly took out three of the Chitauri and tossed the fourth down below, where the civilians quickly took care of it. Jack grinned; Londoners were very much not okay with attacks against their city.

A blinking light caught his eye and even though it was alien in origin, he knew a bomb when he saw one. “Everyone clear out!” he shouted.

The civilians hurried to obey as a Chitauri picked up the bomb and flung it at Jack. He scooped up his shield and ducked behind it. He flew out the window as the bomb exploded against the shield. He landed hard on a police car and shook himself to clear the ringing in his ears. Two constables helped him off the car and he quickly waved them off to help others. He looked around at the chaos and even though his heart lifted to see everyone helping each other, he began to despair that hope might just be lost.


	8. Part VII--Welcome to the Helmouth

**Part VII—Welcome to the Hellmouth**  
“The Directive has made their decision, Colonel Hopkins,” Daffy said.

“I recognize that fact. But as it is a particularly asshat decision, I am electing to ignore it,” Hopkins replied.

Gwen nearly choked. She knew the Director had no love for the Directive’s ruling council, but she didn’t think he was suicidal.

“You are closer than any of our subs. Scramble the jet,” Bugs ordered.

“That is the nation of England out there. Until I am sure my team cannot handle this invasion, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population!”

“If we don’t hold them in London, we lose everything,” Daffy said.

Hopkins stared sadly at them. “If I send that bird out with a payload, then we already have.”  
*****

Hannah ducked as a blast went right over her head. She looked over her shoulder and sighed. “Oh, you,” she said as she saw Gray. “Hawkeye!” she called into her comm.

“White Queen, what the hell are you doing?” Hart replied when he caught sight of her.

“Surfing. Uh, a little help,” she replied.

Hart looked behind her and saw Gray bearing down on her on a glider. He nocked an arrow and grinned. “I’ve got him,” he said before firing.

Gray caught the arrow an inch from his face and tossed a disdainful look up at Hart. The look was quickly wiped off his face as the arrow exploded in his hand, knocking him off his glider and back onto Gallifrey tower’s balcony. He stood up with every intention of returning to the fight, but found himself knocked back into the room he had earlier thrown the Doctor out of.

The large white creature which had pitched him to the floor rolled off him with a growl. Gray stood up just as Weevil began to rush him.

“Enough!” Gray shouted. “All of you are beneath me! I am a _god_ , you dull beast! I will not be bullied by—ack!” he shouted as Weevil picked him up by his feet and began flinging him through the air, smashing him against the cold marble of the floor at the end of each arc.

Weevil finally let go of him, leaving Gray sunk in the ground whimpering.

“Puny god,” Weevil said as he walked away. He jumped out the window and down to the ground, eager to rejoin the fight.  
*****

Hannah spared a moment to laugh before she leapt off the glider, flipping through the air to land on the roof of the tower, mere feet from the Tesseract device. She quickly gained her feet and found herself staring at Tosh, who was sprawled exhausted across the roof.

“Dr. Sato.”

“The scepter,” Tosh replied.

“I’m sorry?” Hannah asked as she walked over to her.

“The energy from Gray’s scepter. The Tesseract can’t fight or protect against herself.”

“It’s not your fault, Tosh. You didn’t know what you were doing.”

The corner of Tosh’s mouth tilted up. “Actually, I think I did. I built in a safeguard to cut the power source.”

“Gray’s scepter,” Hannah said, catching on.

Tosh nodded. “It might close the portal.” She tilted her head to look down. “And I am looking right at it.”

Hannah followed her gaze to see the scepter lying abandoned on the balcony.

“Well how about that.”  
*****

The battle raged on. The Doctor was flying parallel to one of the space whales, firing at it with his lasers.”

“Sir, we will lose power before penetrating the shell of that thing,” IDRIS said, helpful as always.

“Uh huh,” the Doctor said, flying around so he was staring down the space whale. “Hey, IDRIS, did you ever hera the tale of Jonah.”

“Doctor, I really don’t think you should consider him a role model.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” he said, then flew right into the thing’s open mouth. He fired off his repulsors and several incendiary devices as he flew through the body. One of the explosions propelled him out of the body and into the unforgiving surface of the road. He had just managed to get his feet under him when he was descended upon by several Chitauri with staff weapons.  
*****

Hart saw the Doctor go down and fired several arrows, taking some of the pressure off the Doctor. He saw the Doctor give a wobbly salute before he took off back into the fray.

Hart reached back for another arrow and realized his quiver was empty. “Well, fuck.” He pulled a shaft out of a dead Chitauri and shoved it into the quiver, keying the sequence for a grappling arrow.

“This is going to suck so very hard,” he said as he saw two dozen gliders heading his way. He ran and jumped off the roof, turning in midair to fire the arrow at the side of the building. The grapple held and he swung through a window, groaning at the impact as he rolled across the floor. He laid in the debris for a moment, the toll on his body of the past few days suddenly making itself very aware. He took deep breaths, hoping the others were faring better.  
******

“Colonel Hopkins is no longer in command of this operation,” Daffy said through the pilot’s comm. “Command override order Alpha Zulu 2-2.”

“Confirm; command Alpha Zulu 2-2,” the pilot said, initiating his take-off sequence.

On the bridge, Gwen noticed odd movement on the deck of the carrier. “Sir! We have a bird in motion.” She keyed the PA system. “Anyone on deck, we have a rogue bird. Repeat, we have a rogue bird! Shut it down! That take off is not authorized.”

Hopkins had been in motion from the moment Gwen started talking. He picked up a bazooka from one of the weapons stashes Hart hadn’t disabled and made his way to the deck. The jet was speeding by, heading for the end of the runway. He fired the bazooka, taking out the wheels and causing the jet to crash on the runway without fatality.

His attention was pulled by another jet taking off and heading for London. He pulled out his gun and fired at it, but had no effect on the jet.

“Damn it! River, find me a way to talk to the Doctor!” he shouted into his comm.

“You’re good,” River said.

“Doctor, can you hear me?”

“Bit busy,” the Doctor replied. He was still on the ground and taking multiple hits from the Chitauri he was fighting.

“There’s a missile headed for the city.”

“How long?”

“Three minutes, at best.”

“IDRIS, put all the power into the thrusters.”

“I just did,” she replied.

The Doctor blasted up in the air, IDRIS tracking the incoming jet.  
*****

“Package is sent,” the pilot said as he fired the missile and pulled away. “Detonation in 2-point-5 minutes.”  
*****

“Are you ready for another bout?”

Jack looked up to see Boe standing over him, a smile on his bloodied face. “Why, are they getting sleepy?”

Boe laughed and helped him to his feet one-handed, his other hand catching his hammer as it came back to him. “Another round together, my friend.”

Jack nodded and held up his shield.  
*****

On the roof of Gallifrey Tower, Hannah had collected the scepter and was walking toward the device.

“Point it at the ground!” Tosh shouted.

Hannah nodded and slowly began to push the scepter through the force field. She laughed. “It’s working!” She activated her comm. “I can close it. Can anyone copy? I can shut it down.”

“Do it!” Jack said.

“No, wait,” the Doctor interrupted.

“Doctor, those things are still coming through. We have to stop them.”

“I have a nuclear missile coming in that’s gonna blow in less than a minute.”

“What?”

“And I know just where to put it.”

“Doctor, you know that’s a one-way trip,” Jack said.

“I know. IDRIS, save as much as you can for the return,” he said, cutting off his comm to the others.

“Yes, sir. Shall I get Dr. Song for you?”

“Sure.”

“What in the bloody blue blazes of the nine realms are you doing, _Sweetie_?”

“Saving the world. I’m getting to be the hero this time.”

“I like it better when you’re the Oncoming Storm. You tend to make it home when you’re that.”

“I’ll come home.”

“You had better.”

He didn’t have time to say goodbye; he was already breaching the event horizon of the wormhole, entering space that wasn’t their own universe. He resisted—barely—gasping out, “My God, it’s full of stars.” Instead, he gave the missile a push and sent it toward the mother ship. He watched with fascination as the missile unerringly found its way into the hart of the mother ship, detonating in a riot of color. He detached his thrusters and allowed himself to fall back toward the wormhole, his eyes closing on thoughts of River.  
*****

The Chitauri surrounding them screamed and dropped dead, including the last space whale.

“Come on, Doctor,” Jack said, watching the tear in the sky. Nothing came through. He finally sighed. “Close it, Hannah.”

“Damn it,” Hannah muttered, then shoved the scepter home. She stepped back quickly as the device shuttered, the beam shutting down and blasting up toward the wormhole. She watched as the hole closed. Just before it shut completely, a flash of blue and silver fell through.

“Yes!” Hannah shouted, pumping her fist in the air.

“Son of a gun,” Jack said, watching the Doctor’s descent from the ground.

“Jack?” Boe asked, starting to spin his hammer.

“He’s not slowing down,” Jack said.

Before Boe could take off, Weevil was flying through the air, catching the Doctor about the waist. He crashed into a few buildings on his way down, protecting the Doctor against his own body. He finally landed near Jack and Boe, shoving the Doctor off him.

Jack and Boe ran over to the Doctor’s still form. Boe stripped the face plate off and looked down at the Doctor’s resting face.

Jack leaned close. “He’s not breathing. What…what do we do?”

Weevil leaned close over him and roared.

“Gah!” the Doctor said, gasping awake. “What happened? What’s going on? Please tell me no one kissed me. River would _not_ be okay with that?”

Jack laughed and sat back on his heels. “We won.”

“Seriously? That’s a bit of a surprise.”

“Has anyone seen Hart?” Hannah asked.

“I’m here. I’ll be down in a bit,” Hart replied.

“So, yay, us. Good job, guys. Let’s take tomorrow off,” the Doctor said.

“You tell that man he’s taking the next three weeks off and he’ll be lucky if I let him out of bed!” River said through the comm.

Jack took it out and put it in the Doctor’s ear. “It’s for you.”

“Hi there, darling.”

“Don’t you darling me. You are so in for it, mister.”

“Great. Hey, we’re going to go for shawarma. I don’t know what it is, but I saw a place just down the street. Why don’t you come meet us for shawarma?”  
*****

On the bridge of the _Valiant_ , River Song laughed, finally releasing her death grip on Gwen Cooper’s hand.

“Oh, that man,” she said before turning off her comm and taking deep breaths.  
*****

“I think the comm’s dead.”

“Or she hung up on you. That’s a bit more likely,” Hannah said.

“Grab your assassin twin and get down here. There’s shawarma in the future,” the Doctor said.

“We’re not finished yet,” Boe said, looking up at Gallifrey tower.

They all followed his gaze.

“And then shawarma?”  
*****

Gray groaned as he pulled himself up out of the hole in the floor.

“For the record, I’m having that section of the floor excavated, bronzed and made into a coffee table,” the Doctor said.

Gray carefully rolled over to see the members of Excalibur staring him down. “If it’s all the same, I’ll take that drink now,” he rasped.

Jack came forward and pulled Gray to his feet, intending to bind his hands.

Hannah smiled as she stepped forward. Had Gray not just had his clock so neatly cleaned by Weevil, he probably would have recognized the feral gleam in her eyes. As it was, the steel-toed boot connecting forcefully with his crotch caught him completely by surprise.

“Hannah!” Jack scolded.

“Hurt my partner and killed my best friend. The depth chart says I can kick him in the balls.”

They looked to Hart.

“She’s not wrong,” he replied.

Hannah grinned.

“It should be mentioned that if you want him at all viable for questioning later, she also shouldn’t be allowed to continue through the list of things she’s allowed to do in those circumstances,” he added.

“Spoilsport,” Hannah muttered under her breath as the others quickly moved Gray out of her reach.

“And someone should probably take that scepter from her,” Hart added.


	9. Part VIII--Safe

**Part VIII—Safe**  
“You got lucky, Colonel. The news cycle has been mostly positive in their response to Excalibur. While some of the public points out there is a lot they aren’t being told, that is not a new thought,” Bugs said.

Hopkins sighed. He had hoped he could get everything working with the _Valiant_ and get the Doctor’s meddlesome computer programming off his ship before he had to do this again. Apparently, the Directive didn’t like to be kept waiting; even when they were the ones who had monumentally fucked up. 

“Where are they now, Director?” Daffy asked.

Hopkins laughed and folded his arms over his chest. “You know, I’m not currently tracking them. They went to the Brecons to see the Shane off, but I lost them after that. I think they’ve earned the time off.”

“And the Tesseract?”

“Is where it belongs—out of our reach.”

“So, you just sent it and the war criminal home with Boe. That was not your call to make.”

“I didn’t make the call. I just chose not to argue with a god. We’re going to need Boe on our side; I let him have this one.”

“I don’t think you understand what you’ve started.”

“Oh, I have. Boe said the Tesseract was an announcement that we were ready for a higher form of war. This team is my promise that we will meet whatever gets thrown at us. Whether you like it or not,” he finished, shutting off the links.

Gwen met him outside the door. “How does it work now, sir? They’ve all scattered to pretty far places. I mean, the Doctor and River are back at Gallifrey rebuilding the tower and rumor has it Owen Harper is there doing R&D. Captain Jack is apparently on a motorcycle tour of Europe. Hart and Summers-Fogg are wreaking their usual havoc on the trainees, but they’re the only ones we can get to easily. If something happens again, what do we do?”

“They’ll come back.”

“How can you be sure?”

Hopkins stopped and looked at her. “Because I still believe in heroes.”  
*****

On a distant moon, in a distant place, the Kovarian bowed before her maker yet again. “The invasion has failed. These _humans_ were not the cowering wretches we were promised. They will stand against us. They are unruly and therefore cannot be ruled. To court them is foolishness, for they will bow to no master.”

Her maker turned and pushed back his hood, revealing dark blond hair and sharp eyes.

“They will bow to _this_ Master.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An epilogue fix-it is forthcoming. Hopefully I'll have it polished some time this week.


	10. Epilogue--Serenity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fix-it epilogue. See Author's Notes at end for more info.

**Epilogue—Serenity**  
Gwen Cooper took a deep breath and stepped out of the lift onto the common floor in the newly-renamed Excalibur tower. IDRIS’s voice in the lift had kindly told her that her access to the living space of the team would be restricted to this floor unless she was accompanied by a member of the team. She had awkwardly thanked the AI and ridden the lift in silence.

She followed the smell of coffee to the kitchen, where she found Hannah Summers-Fogg sitting on the counter sharpening one of her throwing knives while waiting for the coffee to percolate.

“Agent Cooper,” Hannah said without looking up from her blade.

“Agent Summers-Fogg,” Gwen replied. 

“To what do we owe the singular pleasure of your visit?”

Gwen bit back a groan. She had fought hard against letting Summers-Fogg and Hart off the _Valiant_ to shack up in the Doctor’s tower. She had wanted them back firmly under TORCHWOOD’s control. There was a lot of cleaning up to do and she needed two of their best agents out in the field. Instead, they were hanging out in the lap of luxury.

Well, to be fair, Hart had been under close psychological supervision even after he’d been released from observation after the battle. And the duo had been originally removed to the tower because Summers-Fogg had announced she was ready and willing to shank the next person who made a comment about Hart turning on TORCHWOOD, just as they had suspected he would. In the end, it had seemed safer for all concerned if the assassins were…elsewhere.

“I need to talk to your new team.”

“Aw, is IDRIS blocking your calls again? You’re my favorite, IDRIS!” Hannah said to the ceiling.

“That is not what you said last night,” IDRIS replied.

“Last night you were kicking my ass at Angry Birds. Today is a new day.”

“Just how _did_ Hopkins get you on this team, Fogg?” Gwen asked. She had meant to ask how Hannah had managed to clear all the testing and psych evals. As usual, Hannah read her own subtext into the question.

“He showed me his line-up. And they were just. So. Pretty.”

“How are you not locked up somewhere for intensive psychological evaluation?”

Hannah shrugged. “I blackmailed the psychiatric evaluator.” She pointed her knife at Gwen. “ _You_ need to do better background checks. I found it after only four hours; IDRIS would have had it in twenty minutes,” she said, holding her hand up in the air, palm out.

Gwen was confused until the sound of hands slapping came out of the speakers.

“Did IDRIS just…” Gwen trailed off, not knowing how to finish the sentence.

“Phantom high-five me? Yes, yes she did.” Hannah tucked her knife and whetstone away. “So, again, what brings you here, Assistant Director Cooper?”

“As I said, I need to talk to the team. This is the only floor IDRIS would give me access to. Are the rest of them here?”

“They’re all in the tower, but I’m the only one on this floor. Can I pass along a message?”

“I’ve been instructed to give all of you the message at the same time.”

“Sounds ominous.” Hannah hopped off the counter. “Come on, Cap’s in the CTF.”

“The what?”

“The Combat Training Facility.”

“Most people call it a gym, Hannah.”

“Most people wouldn’t know what to do with our gym,” she replied with a wink.

“You know, you could just leave me here and go get the others.”

Hannah gave her a look that could have been either, “Good luck with that,” or “over your rotting corpse,” Gwen couldn’t be sure.

Gwen sighed and followed Hannah to the lift.  
*****

Captain Jack was, indeed, in the CTF. He was sparring with River Song while the Doctor watched and typed information into his tablet.

“Hannah!” the Doctor called out when he saw her. “Just in time! The good captain won’t go all out with River because he doesn’t want to hurt her. You’re enhanced; he probably wouldn’t feel bad about laying you out flat.”

“And I’d have no complaints,” Hannah replied, making Jack blush.

River took the opportunity to sweep his legs out from under him, knock him on his back and sit on his chest, her knees bracketing his neck. “You really need to work on your reactions in front of the opposite sex, my dear,” she said before placing a smacking kiss on his forehead.

“River,” the Doctor chided.

River rolled her eyes and stood up. She held out her hand to help Jack to his feet. “He really does let me have no fun.”

“I highly doubt that,” Jack said.

“Oh, he _does_ know how to play this game. And you thought he was a stick in the mud,” River said to the Doctor.

“I never said—”

“No, that’s nicer than what you said,” Hannah offered.

“Which you wouldn’t know if you had the simple manners to not slink about in people’s ventilation systems.”

She shrugged. “One, Hart started it. And two, now you know more of the tower’s weak points. You’re welcome.”

Gwen pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

“Oh, Agent Cooper. What brings you here? Well, Hannah, obviously; otherwise, you’d be trapped in the lift,” the Doctor said.

“Yes, about that—”

“Oh, I wouldn’t, Agent Cooper. The relationship between TORCHWOOD and Excalibur is a bit tenuous right now. Best not ask for too much, too soon,” River said.

“So you’re going with that, then? Excalibur?” Gwen asked.

The Doctor shrugged. “As much as I believe scantily clad women lying in lakes and handing out weaponry is no proper basis for a ruling system of government, yes, that is what we are ‘going with’.”

Gwen just stared at him.

“I think you broke her,” River said.

“Nonsense. It takes more than that to break an agent of TORCHWOOD, surely.”

“It should, but don’t call her Shirley,” Hannah said.

The Doctor laughed. “You are a terrible person and I love you for that. But not as much as I love River.”

“And, positively, not _how_ you love River,” Hannah replied.

“You would know; you’ve hacked the video,” River said.

“River!” the Doctor scolded.

“Relax, Sweetie. It’s on our private server; I gave her limited access.”

“Yes, _that_ won’t end terribly,” Hart said as he entered the CTF.

Hannah pointed per finger at him. “ _You_ be nice or I am not sending you stills.”

“Oh, please do stop. Then he’ll stop forwarding them to me,” Owen said, joining them.

“Tosh hasn’t complained,” Hart said.

“You know, I’ve changed my mind. You can have them back on the _Valiant_ ,” the Doctor said to Gwen.

Hannah blew a raspberry at him.

“Actually, that’s why I’m here,” Gwen said.

Hannah and Hart moved to stand between Gwen and Owen, while the Doctor and River stood in front of Cap.

“I was kidding and you’re not taking them,” the Doctor said, his voice deadly.

Out of the corner of her eye, Gwen saw a door slide open, revealing the TARDIS armor.

Gwen held up her hands. “Not like that. Hopkins needs to meet with all of you. He can’t come here because he’s needed on the _Valiant_ , and he can’t video-conference because he’s afraid the Directive will hack the feed.”

“They won’t hack _my_ feed,” the Doctor grumbled.

“That may well be, but Hopkins is unwilling to risk it. I came to ask you all to please come to the _Valiant_.”

The members of Excalibur looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Finally, the Doctor nodded.

“River, you’ll stay here. If you don’t hear from me in the next hour, you unleash the new versions of the TARDIS on the _Valiant_.”

“Usual phrases?” River asked.

“Yes.”

She gave him a quick kiss. “Come home soon. You still have some making up to do.”

The Doctor grinned. “Oh, I love when I have making up to do!”

“Explains why you have to do it so often,” Owen said.

Hannah and Hart snickered as they led the others to the lift. They made sure Gwen was the last in, with them between her and the rest of the team.

“Six,” Hart said.

“Five,” Hannah replied.

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Are they counting down to something?” Captain Jack asked.

The Doctor sighed. “No, they’re betting how many guesses before they figure out my phrase to let River know I’m okay and not being held against my will.”

“One,” Jack said.

They all turned to look at him.

“What? IDRIS likes me.”

Gwen rubbed her forehead, wondering again how this had become her life.  
*****

“Why aren’t we meeting in the conference room?” the Doctor asked as Gwen led them down a long corridor to a set of blast doors.

Gwen shrugged. “This is where Hopkins told me to bring you.”

“If he airlocks us, can you catch us before we all splat?” Hannah asked Owen.

He shrugged. “Most of you. The Doctor will have to get the rest.”

“That’s…not at all comforting,” Hart stated.

“Dibs on Weevil catch!” Hannah said.

“Guess that means I have to get Hart, too,” Owen sighed.

“Separating the assassin twins is not the best idea,” the Doctor said.

The blast doors opened to reveal Hopkins standing a few feet back from them. “Excalibur,” he said to them. “I’ve called you all—”

He was interrupted by a loud crack of thunder. Hopkins looked resigned as the others grinned broadly. Moments later, they heard the unmistakable sound of Boe’s boots running down the hall to them.

“I see the Lightning Road is working again,” Hopkins said sardonically.

“River sent a message,” Boe said as he accepted a quick hug from Hannah.

“I thought your wife was an archaeologist,” Gwen said.

The Doctor snorted. “She is. Now, Director, I believe you had some news.”

“Come in,” he said, gesturing.

They passed through the blast doors, and no one made a move when the blast doors closed behind him.

“You are now in the most classified section of the _Valiant_. I have to come clean about something I’ve kept hidden for the past two months,” Hopkins said.

“You mean before the Doctor finally gets it out of your servers?” Owen asked.

“As I was saying, I—”

He was cut off by a wounded sound coming from Boe’s mouth.

The team turned to see where Boe was looking, and as they did, they saw Ianto Jones walk slowly out of the shadows, leaning heavily on a cane.

Boe ran over to the other man and embraced him tightly, but gently, careful not to disturb any of his wounds. “My Ianto,” he whispered against Ianto’s neck.

“Boe,” Ianto said softly.

Boe pulled back slightly and kissed Ianto, hard, savoring the taste of the lover he thought he’d lost.

“You asshat-wearing, monkey-humping, bat-rastarding, goat-fucking, lying liar who lies!” Hannah shouted before kicking Hopkins in the balls.

“Hannah!” Owen shouted.

“Made me think my best friend was dead. Kick to the balls,” she snarled.

“Again, she’s not wrong,” Hart supplied. “And, this time, I personally have no problem with allowing her to progress through her list. I am certainly not trying to stop her,” he said as Hannah punched Hopkins in the face.

“She won’t kill him, will she?” Jack asked as he easily caught Gwen around the waist before she could go to help Hopkins.

“Not right away.”

Jack looked at Owen and the Doctor. “Five minutes?”

The Doctor looked over at Boe and Ianto, who were still locked in a gently passionate embrace, pausing every few seconds to take a breath before diving back in. “I think five minutes is good. Any longer and Boe’s going to start taking Ianto’s clothes off.”

“Let me know if that happens. Don’t want to miss naked Ianto,” Hannah grunted from where she had Hopkins on the ground, sitting on his back as she pulled his arms back at unnatural angles.

“Hannah, darling, do leave something for River,” the Doctor said several minutes later. His internal clock had told him her five minutes were nearly up.

Hopkins whimpered.

“Yep. You made River cry, Director. You have to pay for that.”

“He will,” Ianto said as he and Boe walked over, Boe’s arm firmly around the wounded man’s waist.

“Ianto,” Hannah said, leaping off the Director’s shaking form. She met Boe’s eyes and waited for a nod from him before she embraced her handler. “Don’t do that again,” she whispered.

“Now that I’ve seen the possible consequences, I won’t,” Ianto replied.

She laughed and sniffled.

The Doctor clapped his hands. “So, how about we head back to my tower, call Tosh up to visit, order an obscene amount of food and decide where we take this team from here. You two,” he said, pointing at Gwen and Hopkins, “are not invited.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ianto said.

“And you so love it when a plan comes together,” Hart said.

“Hey! I know that one!” Captain Jack said.

Owen laughed and punched the super soldier’s arm before they all headed for the still-closed blast doors.

“IDRIS? If you please,” the Doctor said.

“Of course, Doctor,” IDRIS’ voice said before opening the doors.

“Did you wait until you set foot on the deck before you started hacking?” Owen asked.

“Of course not,” the Doctor said.

“We wouldn’t have you any other way, Doc,” Boe said.

“First round’s on me!” the Doctor shouted, leading the way to the flight deck.

**End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Author's Note: I know this wasn't the steamy, hot smex Epilogue some of you wanted. But as I wrote I realized I wanted this part to be more about them being a team and welcoming a beloved family member home. And it leaves the door open for further adventures and smexy fun times..._


End file.
